COCKTAILS of drugs that battle the Aids virus are starting to offer real hope to sufferers, researchers said at the start of the 11th International Conference on Aids in Vancouver.
Pharmaceutical companies kicked off the conference with announcements that trials using various mixtures of drugs helped patients live longer than treatment with one drug alone.
``There begins to be hope of treatment that can significantly prolong survival,'' said Dr Brian Gazzard, clinical director of genito-urinary medicine at London's Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.
``We are helping them to live longer, as opposed to merely easing pain and other symptoms,'' he said before presenting information on drug combinations to a symposium.
Dr Gazzard said it cost #4000 to #5000 to use combination therapy to give a 25-year-old Aids victim another year of life. ``That is relatively cheap,'' he said.
The conference, attended by 15,000 people, opened with a new sense of optimism over scientific breakthroughs even as the killer virus continues to rage, infecting five people every minute.
``We have our first glimmers of hope in a long time,'' conference co-chair Dr Martin Schechter told reporters.
``We are beginning to have the tools within our grasp to be able to start to chip away at this problem, if we are given the resources and commitments we need from government and people around the world,'' he said.
After a decade of disappointment, researchers have recently reported a flurry of major advances against Aids and their findings are expected to be the highlight of the Vancouver conference. Some scientists are even daring to speculate that these gains may one day lead to a cure.
But they emphasise that many hurdles remain, and new data released on the eve of the conference showed the killer pandemic continues to spread relentlessly.
The United Nations estimated 21.8 million people around the world are living with HIV or Aids. About 8500 more people are infected daily.
Since the global pandemic took hold in the early 1980s, 5.8 million people have died of the disease, which destroys the immune system.
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