A South African scientist said on Saturday HIV/AIDS caused the highest number of deaths per annum amongst all infectious diseases. Ahmed A Azad, Professor at the faculty of health science, University of Cape Town, South Africa, stated this while speaking at a session on the second day of a four-day symposium on "Protein Structure Function Relationship", organised by the International Centre for Chemical Sciences of KU at the HEJ Research Institute of Chemistry University of Karachi.
He noted that HIV/AIDS was responsible for the most devastating social and economic effects in the poorest region of the world. "More than 40 million people are now living with HIV/AIDS, most of them are in the southern hemisphere which is least able to afford the currently used retroviral therapy that has dramatic effect in reversing the AIDS-related morbidity and morality in the developed countries," he said. He asserted that the world eagerly awaited an effective prophylactic vaccine. |