VIREAD AIDS drug tested on African women to see if it prevents AIDS???

[jilln]

I got the following from a friend of mine and I have no idea if this is true or some kind of evil chain email... does anyone know how to check these things out? It's in French, but the gist is that a drug called VIREAD is being tested on women in Cameroon. They are paid and given medical exams and told to go have unprotected sex with multiple partners, to see if the drug prevents AIDS. The email is much longer than what I've posted here.

Bonjour à tous!
> > >
> > >Il est presque minuit, et je viens de voir un
> > reportage hallucinant sur la deuxième chaîne de
> > télévision française.
> > >
> > >Depuis le mois de Septembre 2004 un laboratoire
> > américain du nom de GEDEAD s'est implanté à
> Douala
> > pour (officiellement) tester un médicament
> > "préventif" du nom de VIREAD sur des jeunes
> > camerounaises saines c.a.d. SERONEGATIVES!!
> > >
> > >A raison de 4 Euro par mois + des examens
> médicaux
> > gratuits et une promesse de prise en charge en
> cas
> > de contamination, les filles sont encouragées à
> > n'avoir que des rapports sexuels non protégés
> avec
> > des partenaires multiples.
> > >
> > >On leur ment que ce fameux VIREAD les protège,
> que
> > c'est un vaccin et qu'elles ne pourront plus
> jamais
> > être contaminées. En plus, elles auront contribué
> au
> > progrès de la science!!!!

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

1. I smell a France-bashing hoax. (nt)

[LaReservaPr]

2. I Found This

http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0804/165276.html

Cambodia Orders Halt to Drug Testing
UPDATED - Wednesday August 11, 2004 9:54am

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) - Cambodia's premier ordered a halt to plans for human trials of an anti-AIDS drug in his country that would have recruited hundreds of sex workers to determine if the medicine could prevent new HIV infections.

Health Minister Nuth Sokhom said he had been instructed by Prime Minister Hun Sen to stop the project to test the drug Tenofovir, also known as Viread DF, made by the California-based biotech company Gilead Sciences Inc.

He said the prime minister "is worried about the effect on the Cambodian people and on the human values and rights," and "is not allowing (the drug) to be tested on humans at all."

Cambodia, whose Health Ministry had approved the project last year, currently has the highest HIV infection rate in Southeast Asia, blamed largely on its flourishing sex trade.

[Igel]

3. Here's an attempt at a translation.

Hello everybody.

> > >
It's almost midnight, and I've just seen a shocking news report on French TV channel 2.

Since September 2004 an American lab called Gedead has been in Douala to (officially) test a "preventive" drug called Viread on young healthy Cameroonian women that are HIV negative.

For 4 Euros per month and free medical exams, as well as a promise to pay their expenses in case of infection, the girls are encouraged to have sexual relations with multiple partners, without protection.

They're lying and saying that this famous Viread will protect the girls, that it's a vaccine and they will never be able to be infected. MOreover, that they'll have contributed to the process of science.
>>>

That's close at least; I'm being lazy and refuse to consult a dictionary.

Note that this is either novel, or a sloppy paraphrase, confusing Cameroon and Cambodia, young healthy chaste girls with prostitutes.