Expert urges vigilance as HIV cases up 20% in Dublin hospital
Speaking in the city yesterday, Dr Seth Berkley, president of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), said ongoing research could lead to a medical breakthrough in the fight against the disease.
Dr Berkley was in Dublin to mark World Aids Day and joined Minister for Overseas Development Peter Power, at a lecture at the Royal College of Surgeons on combating the virus.
His comments came as St James’s Hospital in Dublin reported a 20% increase in HIV cases this year, 244 new cases in all.
Irish Aid supports some of the work on developing a vaccine for the disease, and Dr Berkley said developments this year in which antibodies were beginning to protect humans from the virus were significant.
However, he also warned of “a false sense of security” and of complacency in parts of the developed world, where there were signs of growth in the infection rate, particularly in places such as eastern Europe.
Figures here in Ireland have also shown a rise in the transmission rate, with a 3.6% increase in cases last year compared with 2007.
“We have protection in humans this year, now it is how we make a better vaccine,” Dr Berkley said. “We need to focus on this in this time of fiscal crisis.
“The worry is that in a fiscal crisis there might be a step away from long-term research.”
He said uncovering a vaccine for Aids is “probably the most difficult scientific challenge” in the world, but said he remained confident that the disease could be brought under control in much the same way as small pox and polio in the past.
Overseas Aid Minister Peter Power said women needed to be at the centre of Ireland’s effort to tackle HIV and Aids in sub-Saharan Africa, where Irish Aid operate a range of projects.
“Approximately 60% of people infected with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa are women,” he said. “Ireland recognises that gender inequality is a major driver of the epidemic.
“Women are physically and socio-economically more vulnerable to HIV and Aids than men, while also bearing the greatest burden of care for those who succumb to the virus.”
He said Irish Aid support in countries such as Mozambique had led to more than 50,000 mothers receiving medicine to prevent mother-to-child transmission of the virus, as well as thousands more who receive anti-retro viral drugs.
However, the government in Lesotho has expressed concern that a reduction in Irish Aid’s budget could impact negatively on work there.
Meanwhile, website dresses.ie has designed a new red dress to mark World Aids Day, taking the red ribbon as the inspiration.
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