From Prensa Latina
US Uses Africans as Guinea Pigs in Anti-AIDS Study
Madrid, Jan 10 (Prensa Latina) A medicine still under study phase against AIDS – known to have possible lethal effects – was used by the United States on African countries as part of the White House´s plan against the pandemic, El Pais newspaper published Monday.
The conduct of a trial of the antiretroviral drug nevirapine previously in Uganda had shown that its use could have deadly effects and patients were used as Guinea Pigs.
According to El Pais, the White House did not know about the problems of this experiment when Bush announced the plan against AIDS in Africa.
Activist Jesse Jackson said the experiment "is a crime against humanity". The medicine used causes serious dermatologic disorders. Nevirapine is an antiretroviral drug used since the 1990s to treat adult AIDS patients and is known to have potentially lethal side effects such as liver damage when taken in multiple doses.
Dr Jonathan Fishbein said officials at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) – where he worked – overlooked problems with the way the study was conducted on the drug, nevirapine, which was being used to protect babies in Africa from HIV infection during birth, according to Business Day newspaper.
The paper said Fishbein accused the NIH of a double standard. "The actions of the NIH reveal a callous indifference to the fate of Africans," Fishbein said. Because of those problems, he said, the results of the study could not be trusted.
Concerns surfaced more recently that nevirapine also might cause long-term resistance to further AIDS treatments. It is marketed in the US as Viramune.
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US to Train Congo Soldiers
Kinshasa, Jan 11 (Prensa Latina) The Democratic Republic of Congo and the United States resumed military cooperation with the training of Congolese soldiers by the latter under decision of President George W. Bush and his Congo counterpart Joseph Kabila.
Local press indicated that such collaboration was halted in 1990 because of the student massacre at Lubumbashi University Campus. At the time, the continued military training was conditioned by acceptance of an international investigation commission, which rejected by President Mobutu Sese Seko.
Diplomatic sources consider this collaboration a channel to reinforce US presence in Central Africa, scene of several other conflicts, namely that of the Great Lakes involving Congo (Kinshasa), Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, among others.
The observers are still to determine what will be the US role in this conflict in dealing with the Congolese neighbors and in restoring peace in the area, since adopting a future position could discourage future arrogant and provocative attitudes.
The experts also think the US decision would be incomplete without incorporating Belgian, French and British wishes to help restore a professional national army in the Congo.
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