X-Message-Number: 7571
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 1997 11:55:56 -0500 (EST)
From: Charles Platt <>
Subject: More News from Sunny South Africa

For the sake of completism, I append additional reports from newspapers in
South Africa regarding Olga Visser's alleged AIDS cure. The first report
is especially interesting since it conveys the degree of desperation and
anguish in South Africa regarding AIDS, which has a very different status
from AIDS in the United States. So far as I can tell, announcing a cheap
cure for AIDS in South Africa would be like announcing a cheap cure for
all forms of cancer in the US.

As of Monday Jan 27, I have not been able to find any more recent news
items in South African newspapers online. Visser and her husband Zigi seem
to have made no public statements at all.

--CP
______________________________________________________________________

   independent online
   cape argus

                 AIDS DRUG PATIENTS TELL OF NEW LEASE ON LIFE


   Pretoria Trial patients treated with Virodene P058 the AIDS drug
   developed by three Pretoria scientists and presented to the Cabinet
   yesterday have said that their condition improved remarkably in just a
   few weeks.

   The patients, volunteers aged between 20 and 50 and in various stages
   of HIV infection, including some with full-blown AIDs, were selected
   for the Virodene trials from an AIDS clinic.

   Several patients gave interviews subject to the condition that their
   real names would not be published.

   John, a self-employed Soweto resident, said he had been HIV-positive
   for a couple of years.

   Before the Virodene treatment started, boils had covered his body and
   he was very weak.

   "I was bad, really I was so weak I couldn't even lift a mug and I used
   to lift weights."

   Three weeks later, at one dose of Virodene per week, his skin cleared
   up and he gained 10kg. After all but giving up, John believes Virodene
   has given him a new lease on life.

   "I am 40 but now I might reach a ripe old age like our leader Madiba
   (President Mandela)."

   John's wife Emma, who contracted HIV from him, was also treated with
   Virodene. She was covered in herpes sores and was dangerously thin,
   but after one dose of Virodene the infection cleared up and she gained
   weight dramatically.

   The couple's constant diarrhoea also stopped.

   Pieter, a foreman who drove to Pretoria from the Free State for each
   treatment, said being tired all the time had affected his ability to
   work.

   He said Virodene had restored his energy. "I started feeling better
   almost immediately." The travelling did not bother him unduly. "It is
   not a problem. When you are dying nothing is a problem."

   The Virodene was administered in skin patches by pharmacologist Eugene
   Olivier, who also made up the dosages.

   The patients wore the patches for eight hours once a week to allow the
   Virodene to be absorbed through the skin into the bloodstream, a
   sensation they said was unpleasant.

   The patients were initially subjected to two-hourly blood tests and
   later once a week to monitor their PCR count, which in layman's terms
   is the virus count per microlitre of blood, and their CD4 count, the
   number per microlitre of lymphocytes or white blood cells which
   collectively make up the body's immune system.

   John's first PCR count was more than 222 000 and his CD4 count was 39.
   After three treatments of Virodene his PCR count dropped to 30 000 and
   CD4 count jumped to 138.

   Emma's PCR count of 1,2 million dropped to about 236 000 in three
   treatments, while Pieter's virus count of almost 60 000 dropped to 12
   000 in three treatments. Sapa

 -------------------------------------------------------------

   independent online
   the cape times

                 NO APPROVAL' GRANTED FOR NEW AIDS DRUG TRIALS

   JOHANNESBURG: The Medicine Control Council (MCC) could not supply
   information about the supposed new Aids medicine Virodene P058 or
   about trials conducted on patients using it, a member of the Africa
   HIV/Aids Information Centre said yesterday.

   Dr Stephen Miller said he had contacted the council on Wednesday.

   "There seems to have been no approval" for the research, he said. If
   the MCC had not approved the research project through the normal
   procedures, then it should have been approved by the University of
   Pretoria's ethics committee.

   To his knowledge, this had also not happened.

   Miller said should the research prove to be a failure in the long run,
   it would be "extraordinarily disastrous" for future medical research
   in the country. South Africa could also become the laughing stock of
   the world.

   Asked whether he would lodge a formal complaint with the MCC against
   the research team, Miller said formal complaints could only be lodged
   by "the patients themselves".

   He said the ability to bypass normal channels and grandstand research
   findings before the cabinet to get more funds for research showed up
   the craziness of the South African situation, where the state provided
   little treatment for HIV/Aids sufferers and medical aid societies did
   not reimburse patients for treatment. Sapa

 -------------------------------------------------------------

   independent online
   cape argus

                       LOW COST IS DRUG'S KEY ADVANTAGE

   Virodene, which is administered in an adhesive patch and is absorbed
   through the skin into the blood, holds a number of key advantages
   probably the most important being that its market price will be a
   small fraction of what other AIDS drugs cost.

   The "three cocktails", at about R138 000 for an 18-month course, or R7
   670 a month, is way out of reach of the vast majority of Third World
   populations who have been hardest hit by AIDS.

   Virodene will cost between R80 and R160 a month and indications are
   that only a six- to eight-week course of Virodene will be required.

 -------------------------------------------------------------

   Cape Argus

   Pretoria =D0 Virodene is not a direct cure for AIDS at all, says one of
   its developers, Professor --> independent online
   cape argus

                       VIRODENE NOT A DIRECT AIDS CURE'

   Argus Correspondent

   Pretoria Virodene is not a direct cure for AIDS at all, says one of
   its developers, Professor Dirk du Plessis.

   Last night, Professor Du Plessis said the formula developed by the
   team of researchers was just a medium that would lower the HIV virus
   count and improve the immune system.

   This could eventually lead to a cure for Aids in that a sufferer's own
   immune system would be able to fight off the virus itself, he said.
   "It is not a direct cure at all."

   Professor Du Plessis, a cardio-thoracic surgeon attached to Pretoria
   University, said that the team had really stumbled across the formula
   almost by chance.

   "It was partly accidental, but not entirely."

   They had been theorising about the formula for more than a year before
   they initiated the research a few months ago, he said.

   It was a collective theory and each of the members of the research
   team worked on different aspects of the project.

   Most of the patients tested with the drug were volunteers, he said.

 -------------------------------------------------------------

   Cape Argus

   Health workers yesterday criticised Wednesday's announcement of a
   "breakthrough --> independent online
   the cape times

                     DESPAIR AS HOPES OF MIRACLE CURE FADE


   Health workers yesterday criticised Wednesday's announcement of a
   "breakthrough" Aids treatment and questioned the high-profile
   presentation to the cabinet of preliminary findings. ANEEZ SALIE
   reports.

   Prisoners at Pollsmoor Prison yesterday morning were among thousands
   of people living with HIV/Aids who openly rejoiced at news of a drug
   breakthrough only to have their hopes dashed later in the day when the
   claim was denied.

   The prisoners and others were so excited they demanded to be included
   in trials for the new "wonder drug", Virodene. They are excluded from
   trials for expensive AZT and 3TC drug cocktails, which retail at R4
   000 a month and have to be taken over three years.

   Virodene would be priced at between R80 and R160 a month and needed to
   be taken for two months only, according to claims to the cabinet on
   Wednesday by Pretoria researchers Ms Olga Visser, Professor Dirk du
   Plessis, Dr Kallie Landauer and Mr Eugene Olivier.

   Deputy President Thabo Mbeki said his cabinet colleagues applauded the
   breakthrough and would consider funding further research on Virodene
   to the tune of R3,7 million. The project was referred to the cabinet
   by Health Minister Dr Nkosazana Zuma.

   Non-government organisations in the HIV/Aids field, however, charge
   that they were not consulted a repeat of the Sarafina 2 fiasco. Even
   the government's own National Aids Advisory Board was unaware of the
   Virodene research and the subsequent cabinet announcement.

   Some media on Wednesday punted Virodene as a miracle cure for Aids.
   Yesterday, however, research team leader Du Plessis of Pretoria
   University denied it was a direct cure at all.

   He said Virodene lowered the HIV virus count in the body and thereby
   strengthened the immune system, which could eventually improve to such
   an extent that it could fight off the virus itself.

   The principal medical officer with the Cape Town municipality, Dr
   Ashraf Grimwood, who oversees HIV/Aids health services in the city,
   was outraged yesterday after visits to various HIV/Aids clinics in the
   Peninsula.

   He said he encountered at first an overwhelming joy, then an anxiety
   to be part of drug trials and finally, utter dejection when told the
   true state of affairs.

   "The way it was handled was completely insensitive, almost as if no
   one, from the cabinet down, really took the time to reflect on the
   effects the cure' hype would have.

   "It is as if they did not care that they were dealing with people who
   are hanging on to life by a thin line waiting for a miracle cure. The
   whole thing was very unprofessional.

   "Now we have to do the damage control."

   The National Association of People Living With HIV/Aids (Napwa), which
   said it represented more than two million South Africans with the
   virus, was equally concerned.

   While they welcomed any breakthrough, they had serious misgivings
   about various aspects of the research. International ethics, norms and
   standards did not appear to have been adhered to, they alleged.

   In the protocol governing drug trials, any substance used on human
   subjects had to be approved by the Medicines Control Council. A Napwa
   statement last night said no such go-ahead was given.

   It added: "We are surprised that all prominent HIV and Aids
   researchers in SA have been completely unaware of this research. The
   National Aids Advisory Board, the National Aids Convention of SA
   (Nacosa), Napwa and the Aids Consortium have also been unaware of
   these developments.

   "The unconventional presentation of these preliminary findings
   (together with) the cabinet's support and the media reports have
   unfairly raised the hopes and expectations of millions.

   "People are under the impression that the drug is commercially
   available and affordable, but due to the absence of approval by the
   Medicines Control Council and the fact that more rigorous trials are
   needed it does not appear that the miracle cure' will be available in
   the foreseeable future."

   Napwa called for the immediate release of the data for rigorous
   evaluation and for the involvement of all with a stake in a cure
   particularly people living with HIV/Aids.

   They also called on the cabinet to withhold any decision on funding
   until a full evaluation had been done.


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