AIDS workers warn of complacency

British HIV positive patient James Locke says new trial drug T-20 saved his life

BARCELONA, Spain -- AIDS charities are warning those suffering from the syndrome to be cautious about the unveiling of sophisticated new products to fight the HIV virus.

At the 14th International AIDS Conference in Barcelona on Tuesday, drug companies are set to unveil more news on drugs that block the HIV virus, offering hope to thousands in rich countries resistant to older treatments.

On Monday U.S. health authorities announced plans for a $36 million trial of an AIDS vaccine on 16,000 HIV-negative volunteers in Thailand, the largest such trial to date. (Full story)

But despite the advances, campaigners say AIDS is spinning out of control in many poor nations unable to get access to expensive treatments.

AIDS also has different strains in different parts of the world and drugs developed in the West may not help the developing world.

Jeffrey O'Malley, Executive Director of the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, told CNN that vaccines could only be "partially effective" and the challenge was to get drugs to the people and the countries who most needed them.

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The World Health Organization has been among pressure groups pushing for price reductions by the pharmaceutical industry of combination drugs. WHO says $10 billion is needed annually to fight AIDS -- nearly three times the current spending.

More than 20 million people have died from AIDS in the last two decades and the United Nations AIDS agency, UNAIDS, says 70 million more could perish in the next 20 years.

"Ninety percent of people who are HIV positive are living in developing countries and only 10 percent of resources are actually spent in those countries," Beck Shaw of ActionAid, told CNN.

The most advanced of the new drugs, a so-called "fusion inhibitor" from Roche Holding of Switzerland and U.S. biotech firm Trimeris, discussed on Monday, will be the most expensive AIDS drug on the market, Reuters reported.

Activists angry at Roche's pricing and marketing policies staged a sit-in at the firm's exhibition stand on Monday.

GlaxoSmithKline, the world's biggest producer of the medicines, was due to report progress on Tuesday on its new "integrase inhibitor."

Africa bears the greatest share of HIV infections to date, but experts fear Asia could soon overtake it as the continent hardest hit.

"The silence about the epidemic in Asia is even more deafening than elsewhere," Hakan Bjorkman, an adviser on AIDS to the United Nations Development Program, told the Barcelona conference.

"Asia has the second largest number of people living with HIV/AIDS in the world -- 6.6 million -- and unfortunately will most likely become the home of the largest number of people living with HIV/AIDS," he said.

In one gesture sure to please AIDS campaigners, Brazil offered on Monday to share its cheaper, generic AIDS drugs and technology to make them with 10 of the poorest countries.

News of possible breakthroughs came amid grim warnings about the spread of AIDS and research suggesting the average life expectancy of people in 11 African countries will drop below 40 by 2010. (Full story)

On Tuesday, it was revealed that the number of babies born with HIV in the United States had fallen by 80 percent in a decade, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The number of newborns with the virus dropped from a high of about 1,760 in 1991 to an estimated 280-370 by 2000, thanks to voluntary HIV testing and counselling of pregnant women and the use of life-saving antiretroviral drugs.