On Mon, 12 Feb 2001, Doug Pensinger wrote:
>
> I meant to include a bit more information in this post last night, but I was
> tired and more than a little depressed after watching 60 Minutes (which
> included two other rather upsetting articles). The best info I could find on
> the web was an article in the Seattle Times:
> http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/news/nation-world/html98/afri_20000119.html.
> One thing that was on the television article but not in the article at the
> above link is that the drug that could help end the epidemic, DFMO, is now
> being marketed as some kind of remover for unwanted facial hair, but isn't
> being produced to combat this diabolical disease.
The article in the NYT last week put a bit of a different spin on the
issue; the fact that a profitable use for the drug has been found
means that it *will* be produced, as it isn't now, and that some will
now be available for combating sleeping sickness. Obviously I'd like
to see the pharmaceuticals produce it for altruistic purposes to
combat the disease, but as that isn't going to happen I don't think
it's a bad thing that it's being produced now especially as it means
some will become available.
>From http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/09/health/09SLEE.html:
The Bristol-Myers Squibb Company and the Gillette Company have just
introduced eflornithine in a facial cream, Vaniqa, and Bristol-Myers
is close to an agreement with the World Health Organization and the
medical charity Doctors Without Borders for the companies to make an
injectable form to treat human African trypanosomiasis, better known
as sleeping sickness.
Of course, if I *hadn't* read this article last week, I would have had
no idea what disease you were talking about, because you didn't bother
to mention that trivial little detail in your post.
--
Andrea Leistra [EMAIL PROTECTED]
"If you can keep your head while all those about you are
losing theirs, perhaps you have misunderstood the situation."
-- Daniel Keys Moran, _The Long Run_
