[AIDS. In the West, nothing new].

The June 1989 International Conference on AIDS in Montreal had a record attendance of 11000 including several thousand journalists representatives of pharmaceutical companies sociologists psychologists and numerous AIDS patients primarily from the US. The opening session was postponed for several hours by demonstrators protesting the government response to AIDS. The initial plenary sessions failed to present information on scientific progress against AIDS but focused on topics such as tolerance the faults of humanity and the difficult life of homosexuals. The 6000 communications presented a pessimistic picture of the prospects for controlling the epidemic especially in Africa. Several studies indicated that condom use is very limited in Africa and that no national policy has succeeded in reducing the rate of new infections. The few notes of hope concerned the improved management of AIDS cases in the industrialized countries which have increased 18-month survival rates from 30% in 1982 to 60% in 1988. The difficulty and expense of treatments however mean that they are unlikely to be adopted in countries with limited health resources. Vaccines under development in France and the US show promise but there is little hope of a cure in the near future. AZT is believed to improve the quality of survival time rather than the duration. Some new antivirals under study are too highly toxic for practical use.