oct08-1

By MALCOLM RITTER,AP Science Writer AP - Tuesday, October 7

Two French scientists who discovered the AIDS virus and a German who defied convention in showing a viral cause for cervical cancer shared the Nobel Prize in medicine Monday for breakthroughs that have led to lifesaving drugs and a vaccine.

Francoise Barre-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier of France were cited for their discovery of HIV in 1983. They shared the award with Germany's Harald zur Hausen, who found that certain human papilloma viruses cause cervical cancer, the second most common cancer among women worldwide.

Zur Hausen discovered that two types of HPV promote cervical cancer, bucking a prevailing idea that blamed a different kind of virus. He made the viruses available to the scientific community. That led to the development of HPV vaccines to prevent cervical cancer. Vaccination is recommended for millions of young women and girls in the U.S.

Zur Hausen will get half of the $1.4 million prize, while the two French scientists split the other half.

The discovery the AIDS virus by Montagnier and Barre-Sinoussi was crucial to understanding the biology of AIDS and how to fight it, the Nobel Assembly said in its citation issued in Stockholm, Sweden. Since the scientists' work in the early 1980s, millions of people with HIV are still alive thanks to new drug treatments.

The announcement of the Nobel winners was notable for one scientist who was not named: U.S. researcher Dr. Robert Gallo, who almost 25 years ago also claimed credit for the discovery of HIV and who played a big role in research of the disease.

The dual claims led to a high-profile dispute between Gallo and Montagnier. They agreed publicly in 1987 to share the discovery credit equally, as part of a settlement of patent claims for an AIDS blood test. But Gallo later said he'd found that his lab's cultures had accidentally become contaminated with AIDS virus from Montagnier's lab.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, a prominent AIDS researcher and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Md., said the French scientists clearly identified HIV first and deserved Monday's honor.

Gallo would have been "an obvious choice" to be included on the Nobel if the prize's rules had allowed for a fourth recipient, Fauci said. That's because of Gallo's role in showing HIV causes AIDS and in a technical advance that allowed HIV to be isolated, he said.

Gallo, director of the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland, told The Associated Press that it was "a disappointment" not to be included in the Nobel. But he said all three of the winners deserved the honor.

Reached in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, where he is attending an international AIDS conference, Montagnier said he wished Gallo had been included in the prize.

"It is certain that he deserved this as much as us two," he said.

Montagnier said the prize "encourages us all to keep going until we reach the goal at the end of this effort."

He said he remains optimistic about conquering AIDS. Progress in developing a vaccine to prevent it has been frustrating.

Barre-Sinoussi said that when she and Montagnier isolated the virus 25 years ago they hoped they would be able to prevent the global AIDS epidemic that followed.

Last year, more than 33 million people worldwide were living with HIV and 2.1 million died of AIDS, according to global health estimates. Two-thirds of HIV infections are in sub-Saharan Africa.

"We naively thought that the discovery of the virus would allow us to quickly learn more about it, to develop diagnostic tests _ which has been done _ and to develop treatments, which has also been done to a large extent and, most of all, develop a vaccine that would prevent the global epidemic," Barre-Sinoussi told the AP by telephone from Cambodia.

The Nobel citation noted that the French researchers' work had "substantially decreased spread of the disease and dramatically increased life expectancy among treated patients."

Barre-Sinoussi, 61, is director of the Regulation of Retroviral Infections Union at the Institut Pasteur in France, while Montagnier, 76, is the director for the World Foundation for AIDS Research in Prevention, also in the French capital.

In honoring Zur Hausen, the Nobel Assembly said he "went against current dogma" when he found that some kinds of human papilloma virus, or HPV, caused cervical cancer. He was able to detect the DNA of HPV in tumors, and uncovered a family of HPV types, only some of which cause cancer.

The HPV virus, transmitted by sexual contact, causes genital warts that sometimes develop into cancer. The new cancer vaccines protect against the HPV strains that cause most cervical cancers.

When reached by the AP, Zur Hausen, 72, of the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg said: "I'm not prepared for this. We're drinking a little glass of bubbly right now."

FACTBOX - Nobel medicine prize - Who are the winners?

Mon, Oct 6 04:39 PM

REUTERS - Harald zur Hausen won the 2008 Nobel prize for medicine or physiology for his discovery of "human papilloma viruses causing cervical cancer". The other half was jointly won by Francoise Barre-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier for their discovery of "human immunodeficiency virus" Sweden's Karolinska Institute said on Monday.

Here are some details about the winners:

* LUC MONTAGNIER:

-- He was born 1932 in France, and gained a PhD in virology at the University of Paris. He became a Professor emeritus and Director, World Foundation for AIDS Research and Prevention in Paris.

-- In the years before the onset of the AIDS epidemic, Montagnier made many significant discoveries concerning the nature of viruses. He made major contributions to the understanding of how viruses can alter the genetic information of host organisms, and significantly advanced cancer research.

-- His investigation of interferon, one of the body's defenses against viruses, also opened avenues for medical cures for viral diseases. Montagnier's ongoing research focuses on the search for an AIDS vaccine or cure.

* FRANCOISE BARRE-SINOUSSI:

-- She was born in 1947 in France and gained a PhD in virology at the Institut Pasteur in Garches, France.

-- She joined the Pasteur Institute in Paris in the early 1970s, and has been an outstanding leader in the field of retrovirology for many years.

-- She is most noted for the role that she played in the initial identification of HIV-1 as the cause of AIDS. Her work is highly cited in scientific literature and she is recognised in particular as the first author of the publication that reported in 1983 the discovery of a retrovirus, later named HIV, in a patient at risk for AIDS.

-- She runs an important Research Unit, which works on the impact of the innate defences of the host in controlling HIV/AIDS, as well as mother to child transmission. She has co-authored over 200 scientific publications.

-- Barre-Sinoussi and Montagnier discovered human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Virus production was identified in lymphocytes from patients with enlarged lymph nodes in early stages of acquired immunodeficiency, and in blood from patients with late stage disease.

* HARALD ZUR HAUSEN:

-- He was born in March 1936 in Germany and gained an MD at University of Duesseldorf.

-- After three years as a senior scientist at the Institute of Virology of the University of Wuerzburg, he was appointed in 1972 as Chairman and Professor of Virology at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. From 1983 until 2003 he was Scientific Director of the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg.

-- Zur Hausen went against current dogma and postulated that human papilloma virus caused cervical cancer, the second most common cancer among women.

-- His finding led to two vaccines that protect against certain strains of the virus.

Sources: Reuters/www.nobel.org

China

Has Made 'Substantial Progress' in Fight Against HIV/AIDS, Still 'Long Way To Go'

China "had made substantial progress in checking the spread of HIV but there is still a long way to go," UNAIDS Executive Director Peter Piot writes in a China Daily opinion piece. Although more than 34,000 people in China now have access to antiretroviral drugs -- compared with 5,000 in 2003 -- "we cannot slow down in our vigilance," Piot writes, adding, "Whereas substantial progress has been achieved in this country, the number of people receiving HIV drugs is still less than half the number who require them." In addition, the "epidemic continues to run ahead of the response: for every two people who start taking antiretroviral drugs, another five become newly infected with HIV," according to Piot.

Many HIV cases occur "in situations that are illegal or outside of mainstream society," Piot writes, adding, "These give rise to apparent contradictions between respect for the law and protecting the health of people who inject drugs or are sex workers, between sexuality and morality, between needs of public security and public health, drug control and safe injections." To "confront AIDS is to confront contradictions in society," according to Piot, who adds, "On closer investigation, however, most of these contradictions prove to be false contradictions. A scientifically based AIDS response can solve them for the greater well-being of more people."

These issues make HIV/AIDS "such a complex problem to deal with," Piot writes, adding, "Complex problems require complex solutions. They also respond best to collective approaches." According to Piot, working "with community groups, for example, can greatly increase the impact -- and effectiveness -- of AIDS strategies." He adds, "In fact, given that most infections are happening in situations outside the mainstream norm, it is often very difficult for government alone to reach those who need to be reached." China has "solid policies in place and has made significant progress in the fight against AIDS," Piot writes, concluding, "It is time now to use the tremendous array of resources at its disposal to build on that progress and to tackle new, tough challenges like harm reduction and increasing civil society involvement" (Piot, China Daily, 10/8).

By Donald G. McNeil Jr.

Infection with the virus that causes AIDS is spreading beyond China's original high-risk groups - heroin addicts in the south and blood sellers in rural central counties.

A new study finds that the virus has spread to all provinces, and cases are rising quickly among gay men and female prostitutes.

Heterosexual transmission is increasing. In Yunnan, the country's hardest-hit province, two men were infected for each woman as of 2006; 10 years earlier, the ratio was 13 to 1.

Although the number of estimated cases - 700,000 - is low for a population of 1.3 billion, it has risen 8 percent since 2005, according to the study, published last week in Nature.

"The epidemic is expanding, and more effective preventive measures are urgently needed," said the authors, who include seven scientists from Chinese universities and government agencies and Dr. David Ho from the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center at Rockefeller University.

Scientists believe AIDS entered in the 1980s with drug traffickers in Yunnan, which borders the opium "Golden Triangle" in Southeast Asia. It grew in Henan, where illegal blood banks pooled blood from indigent farmers, spun it to remove clotting factors and returned mixed red cells to all sellers.

The tracking of HIV subtypes suggests that the virus has moved along drug-trafficking routes, creating an outbreak in western Xinjiang.

To prevent spread to the general population, the study's authors endorse condom promotion among sex workers, exchange of clean drug- injection needles for used ones, methadone maintenance and free antiretroviral therapy.

Originally published by The New York Times Media Group.

Nobel is postscript to bitter 1980s HIV dispute

By MALCOLM RITTER, AP Science WriterMon Oct 6, 3:54 PM ET

The awarding of the Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday writes a postscript to a bitter scientific dispute in the 1980s over who deserved credit for discovering HIV and the resulting test to screen blood for it.

The Nobel committee honored French scientist Dr. Luc Montagnier and a collaborator for discovering the virus. It didn't include American researcher Dr. Robert Gallo, whose dispute with Montagnier made headlines nearly 25 years ago.

Gallo said Monday he was disappointed that his own HIV work wasn't honored, and Montagnier said he too wished Gallo had been included.

In 1986, the two men shared a prestigious Lasker Award. The citation for that honor reflects what many AIDS scientists say gives an accurate picture of their roles: Montagnier found the virus, and Gallo showed that it causes AIDS.

The sexually transmitted disease was given a name in 1981, setting off a race to find its cause. (TV viewers got a glimpse of its history in a 1993 HBO movie, "And the Band Played On," based on the Randy Shilts' book of the same name. Gallo was portrayed by Alan Alda.)

In 1983, Montagnier's laboratory announced a suspected cause — a virus those scientists called LAV. But their finding was largely ignored because it was based on a single patient. They sent copies of the virus to Gallo, who at that time was with the National Cancer Institute in the United States and also searching for the cause of AIDS.

In 1984, Gallo said his team had found a virus he named HTLV-3 and presented evidence that it caused AIDS. But further studies showed it was identical to LAV, raising questions about its origin.

The issue was about more than prestige, as both Gallo and Montagnier had filed for patents on a test to screen blood for the AIDS virus. Researchers at France's Pasteur Institute, where Montagnier worked at the time, sued the U.S. government in 1985, seeking royalties from the patent on Gallo's work.

The controversy sprawled across the pages of newspapers and scientific journals. Finally, in a 1987 agreement announced by then-President Ronald Reagan and Prime Minister Jacques Chirac of France, the two parties agreed to split the patent rights to the blood test. And Montagnier and Gallo publicly agreed to be considered co-discoverers of the AIDS virus.

Gallo later said his lab cultures had accidentally become contaminated with the French virus. In 1994, the U.S. government acknowledged that the AIDS test developed in Gallo's federal laboratory had used the French virus, and the U.S. agreed to give more of the royalties to France.

Financial crisis threatens medical research: Nobel winner

Sat Oct 11, 12:10 PM ET

One of the joint winners of this year's Nobel Prize for medicine said the current financial crisis could have a negative impact on the world's health, particularly in poorer countries.

FranÃ§oise Barre-Sinoussi, who shared the 2008 award with two of her fellow researchers for her discovery of the AIDS virus in 1983, told RTL radio the current economic conditions could have a terrible knock-on effect on the health and research sector worldwide.

"When there are financial problems in the world, we know there will be an impact on the health sector, on research," she said.

Asked why she had kept out of the limelight, while her colleague Luc Montagnier has been well-known for more than a quarter of a century, Barre-Sinoussi said she preferred to concentrate on her work rather than become a celebrity.

"I'm at my happiest when I'm in my laboratory in Pasteur, interacting with clinicians and researchers, and visiting the countries most affected, in Africa or in Asia," she said.

Barre-Sinoussi, 61, is a professor at the Institut Pasteur in Paris.

She also called for a greater injection of money into AIDS research, claiming the poor salaries awarded to young researchers in France is hindering progress in the field.

Barre-Sinoussi and Montagnier shared one half of the award for their discovery of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS, one of the biggest scourges of modern times.

Harald zur Hausen of Germany won the other half of the award for going against the then-current dogma and claiming that a virus, the human papilloma virus (HPV), causes cervical cancer, the second most common cancer among women.

The Nobel Medicine Prize website

German Nobel Prize Winner Slams Pharmaceutical Firms

Germany

's Harald zur Hausen, who won the Nobel Prize in medicine for research into cervical cancer, spoke out against the high cost of a new vaccine against the virus which mostly kills women in developing nations.

Harald zur Hausen's research helped link human papillomaviruses (HPV) to cervical cancer, the key to eventually developing a vaccine to prevent the disease.

Yet zur Hausen said he was disappointed in the initial lack of interest from pharmaceutical companies in his team's findings and the slow pace at which a vaccine was developed. Zur Hausen also lamented the high cost of the vaccine, which he said keeps it out of the reach of most poor women.

Each year 250,000 women die of cervical cancer, 83 percent of them in developing coutnries, zur Hausen said. Yet a vaccine against cervical cancer, available in Germany since 2006, costs 500 euros ($682).

That is "much too expensive," the scientist told Germany 's Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper in an interview published Wednesday, Oct. 8.

"I assume that countries such as India and China will begin producing it themselves and that there will be complete immunization programs in developing countries within a few years," he told the newspaper.

Zur Hausen worked as a professor, chairman and scientific director of the Management Board of the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg up to his retirement. He shares the award, the highest for medicine, with two French researchers who studied the HIV virus which causes AIDS.

Zur Hausen dismissed the notion that regular pap smears make a vaccination unnecessary. Even though cervical cancer is often detected early and can be surgically removed, preventing it is a far better option, zur Hausen said.

Zur Hausen also said he supports giving vaccinations to girls as young as nine. Currently, girls between the ages of 12 and 17 are vaccinated. Zur Hausen said he would also advocate extending the age upwards for women who are not sexually active. He also said that young men should be given the vaccine, since they can transmit the virus.

Magic Johnson critical of hosts after AIDS remarks

By DOUG GLASS, Associated Press WriterSat Oct 11, 1:43 AM ET

Magic Johnson criticized a pair of talk show hosts Friday for accusing him of faking AIDS but said he didn't want them to be fired. Chris Baker and Langdon Perry of KTLK in Minneapolis made the remarks during Baker's conservative radio show on Wednesday. After Johnson condemned the statements, the station said it regretted "some offhand remarks" by the pair.

"We can't have people out here making false statements and putting out bad information, because this battle is too big when it comes to HIV and AIDS," Johnson told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

"I poured my life into it and a lot of other people have poured their life into it, into getting out the right information so people can protect themselves and know what HIV and AIDS is all about."

Johnson called the remarks "so stupid," and said he hadn't heard from the station. He also wants the hosts to keep their jobs.

"I would rather they educate their audience," he said.

According to a partial transcript and audio clip posted on a media watchdog site, mediamatters.org, the remarks came after a caller asserted that health care isn't a basic right. Perry responded by asking about treatable diseases that a person can live with for a long time "if you just get some basic drugs."

Baker responded, "Like Magic Johnson?"

Perry replied, "Like Magic with his faked AIDS. Magic faked AIDS."

Baker said, "You think Magic faked AIDS for sympathy?"

Perry replied, "I'm convinced that Magic faked AIDS."

"Me too," Baker said.

Johnson was diagnosed with HIV in 1991 and then retired from the NBA at 32.

KTLK's statement said it recognized the seriousness of AIDS and the "great work" Johnson has done to call attention to the disease.

"We regret that some offhand remarks by commentators on KTLK did not reflect that," the statement said. "To better inform our listeners and employees, KTLK will be airing HIV/AIDS awareness public service announcements, and will be reaching out to Mr. Johnson to get his thoughts on education efforts."

Program director Steve Versnick said the station wouldn't comment beyond the statement.

Johnson, 49, said his health is "wonderful." He also noted that he has HIV, not AIDS.

"You have incredible drugs now," he said. "I'm working out every day."

Cutting HIV: male circumcision booms in Uganda

by Ben SimonTue Oct 7, 12:17 PM ET

Like many cultural events, a male circumcision ceremony in eastern Uganda has its share of governing rules: the "candidate" is not supposed to see the surgeon until seconds before the cutting and his mother cannot be present.

But as Sam Natsambwa, 23, prepared for his circumcision on a recent Saturday one rule seemed more important than the rest.

"You don't scream. It's taboo. You don't. Even if it pains you. It is not allowed. Maybe you can cry internally, but you don't scream," insisted Geofrey Natubu, who officiated in his capacity as vice chairman of Bududa District, a lush, mountainous area about 250 kilometres (155 miles) east of Kampala.

As the surgeon lowered the knife to Natsambwa's midsection, the candidate, his body and face caked in the customary mud and millet, steadied himself and fixed his eyes straight ahead.

He didn't look down, nor at anyone around him until it was over. He didn't flinch or groan or even grimace. And he certainly didn't scream.

The cutting only took seconds and when it was finished, the surgeon raised the knife above his head in celebration. Music played and the dozens of onlookers danced and drank local brew.

Minutes after the act, Natsambwa, a bloodstained cloth strung around his waist, sat on a stool in the middle of the crowd. "I was panicking before," he said. "I was thinking, a few minutes ago, maybe I couldn't withstand the pain."

For the Bugisu, the dominant tribe in eastern Uganda, a circumcision is a must in a young man's progression to adulthood. For years, the custom was associated only with the eastern part of the country, but that is likely to soon change.

Recent studies conducted in Uganda, South Africa and Kenya all suggest that medical male circumcision can reduce HIV transmission by as much as 60 percent, according to Doctor Alex Opio, a Ugandan health ministry expert.

In recent months, many men in the East African region from tribes which do not consider circumcision a rite of passage have undergone the cutting.

In neighbouring Kenya, Prime Minister Raila Odinga publicly endorsed the drive for the male population to be circumcised, in defiance of the tradition defended by the elders of his Luo tribe, which straddles the border with Uganda.

As a result, the government is developing a plan to promote circumcision across the country.

Doctor Kihumuro Apuuli, head of the Uganda AIDS Commission, recently said that at the World AIDS Conference in Mexico City, Uganda was identified as "one of the countries that was doing well but is now falling back," in its battle against HIV/AIDS.

"Some support circumcision, others trash it, but if you get an intervention that can contribute to the reduction of infections, you have to support it," he said, explaining the rationale behind the government's decision.

The scientific community remains divided on the evidence to support the claim that circumcision reduces the risk of contracting HIV, while some also argue that such a finding may have encouraged men to take fewer precautions.

But Opio, who is coordinating the government's plan, believes there is "overwhelming support in the country," for the idea.

While the plan is not yet finalised, Opio said the health ministry hopes to begin by targeting adolescents, circumcising young men before they become sexually active.

The age at which a Bugisu is circumcised varies from clan to clan between 14 and 25. "It is an in-born thing. We don't force you," said Natubu, the district vice chairman.

"If my son tells me he wants to be circumcised I will ask him if he is confident that he is going to manage. If he says, 'yes father, I am ready,' I will say 'OK, but don't make me ashamed as a parent.'"

Though the Bugisu have been practicing circumcision for centuries, the government has no intention of advocating their approach.

"The ceremonies associated with that ritual are not safe," Apuuli of the AIDS Commission said. "Using the same knife on different people. Having sex before the wounds heal. We are talking about safe circumcision."

Natubu admitted that there was a time when the ceremonies performed in his district were unsafe, but he said that ten years ago, once the community fully recognised the danger of HIV/AIDS, they began using only one knife per candidate.

"We wish other tribes to come on board. If it is true that is one of the preventive measures against HIV/AIDS, then it is better for us all to take it, irrespective of the way through which you do it. You can do it the way you want."

Nobels awarded for AIDS, cancer virus research

FACTBOX - Nobel medicine prize - Who are the winners?

China Has Made 'Substantial Progress' in Fight Against HIV/AIDS, Still 'Long Way To Go'

HIV Cases Rising Quickly in New Groups in China

Nobel is postscript to bitter 1980s HIV dispute

Financial crisis threatens medical research: Nobel winner

German Nobel Prize Winner Slams Pharmaceutical Firms

Germany 's Harald zur Hausen, who won the Nobel Prize in medicine for research into cervical cancer, spoke out against the high cost of a new vaccine against the virus which mostly kills women in developing nations.

Magic Johnson critical of hosts after AIDS remarks

Cutting HIV: male circumcision booms in Uganda