How Africa's researchers are solving Africa's health problems

Researchers are pioneering treatments on the continent, for health challenges unique to the continent – but despite the successes African research institutions continue to lag behindProfessor Yasien Sayed, at Wits University in Johannesburg, recently celebrated a colossal advance in the study of HIV. Big pharma doesn't differentiate between the strain of HIV caught by people living in sub-Saharan Africa and the strains caught in Europe and America. This is a major problem because the virus itself is continent-specific.Sayed said the plight of HIV-infected patients is aggravated because pharmaceutical companies investigating ARV design are not designing subtype specific drugs – "because it is not in their financial interests … in my opinion, big pharmaceutical companies are not interested in South Africa or sub-Saharan Africa because we are not a viable economic market"."The problem is that all the drugs currently available to treat HIV worldwide have been designed to target the subtype B virus of HIV – the major cause of infection in North America and Europe," he continued.The vast majority – 70% of adults and 88% of children - infected with HIV worldwide live in sub-Saharan Africa, but almost all of the treatment developed to date has been designed using the research into the North American and European strains.So Sayed set out to study the strains of HIV that affect sub-Saharan Africa. He is working towards a treatment for the subtype C virus, which is present in ...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Global health innovation Uganda Guardian Professional Medical research Food safety Features Animals Partnership Aids and HIV South Africa Global development professionals network Science Source Type: news