Lisbon, 29 November 2006 -- The first workshop for journalists from African countries with Portuguese as official language (PALOP) took place in Lisbon, Portugal from 27–29 November 2006. It was organized by the African AIDS Vaccine Programme with the support of WHO and UNAIDS.

The workshop aimed primarily to update journalists from PALOP countries on progress in AIDS vaccine research currently being conducted worldwide.

The issues discussed at the three-day workshop include: understanding science for better dissemination of scientific information; ethical issues in AIDS information; and prospects in community issues and the press.

One of the top events at the workshop was interactive training among journalists including those from Brazil and South Africa who collaborated in the workshop and shared their experiences.

Journalists from Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique and Sao Tome and Principe recommended to WHO and UNAIDS to, among other things, establish a PALOPs journalists network; enhance media access to the HIV/AIDS vaccine research process; create a virtual space for the sharing of information and experience among journalists; draw up a plan for holding similar workshops, every year or every biennium, in the different subregions to empower journalists in AIDS information processing.

Addressing the participants, the Coordinator of the AIDS vaccine initiative of WHO, Dr Saladin Osmanov, said that “we will have to wait for at least eighteen months from now, before we know the results of the HIV/AIDS vaccine research currently underway in Thailand, involving 16 000 volunteers.”

Dr Saladin Osmanov noted that the research being conducted in Thailand has reached the final phase (phase three) and should be ready for testing in 2008. He went on to say that even if the vaccine’s efficacy is proven in Thailand, the efficacy would not automatically apply in other countries such as those in Africa because of the wide variation in the different types and forms of the virus between countries and between continents.

There are now 30 vaccines being researched, including 8 in Africa, that are technically supported by the African AIDS Vaccine Programme.

The Coordinator of WHO’s AIDS vaccine initiative, Dr Osmanov, added that AIDS vaccine research in USA and Europe is also at an advanced stage and all tests are scheduled for completion by 2015.

Current statistics show that 40 million people are infected worldwide including over 28 million living in Africa.

For more information contact: 

Joana Teixeira 

Tel: + 47 241 39382 

Email: teixeiram [at] afro.who.int