Bila Minlangu Kapita | |
---|---|
Born | Bas-Congo, Belgian Congo |
Nationality | Congolese |
Other names | Kapita Bila, Kapita Bila Minlangu, Kapita Bila Mirlangu |
Occupation | Cardiologist |
Bila M. Kapita is a doctor from Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo who aided in initial research efforts investigating HIV/AIDS in Africa in the 1980s and 1990s. Kapita is credited as one of the first African scientists to independently identify that AIDS was prevalent in Central Africa. Research work in collaboration with Project SIDA helped identify and publicize the heterosexual sexual transmission of HIV. Following his research career, he continued caring for patients with HIV/AIDS and has more recently returned to practicing cardiology.
Bila M. Kapita was raised in a Swedish mission in the Bas-Congo province of the former Belgian Congo. [1]
Kapita received medical training in Brussels, Belgium at the Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc, where he focused on cardiology, publishing several research articles on the subject dating back to 1975. [2] [3] [4]
Upon return to Zaire, Kapita practiced cardiology and general medicine at the Mama Yemo Hospital, becoming head of internal medicine. [4] [5] [6] Kapita was well established in Kinshasa and served as the head of the Kinshasa Medical Association. [4]
Kapita noted in retrospect that patients at his hospital displayed an increased amount of Kaposi's sarcoma beginning in the mid-1970s. Around the same time, patients were more frequently suffering from Cryptococcal meningitis. [5] Both diseases are opportunistic infections which were significant of decreased immune system response in patients.
Following the initial connection between these opportunistic infections in the United States in 1981, African scientists including Kapita recognized the similar clinical presentation. The prevalence of what would soon become known as AIDS in African countries caught the attention of European and American researchers. The United States’ Centers for Disease Control and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases were alerted to the rising pandemic by former collaborators in Ebola research from Europe such as Peter Piot. [4] [7] A group of researchers from Belgium, the United States, and France were first introduced to the state of Africa's AIDS pandemic in the isolation wards of Kapita's hospital. [4] [5] [7]
Kapita was welcoming to the international researchers, allowing them to work from his hospital for long periods of time. Due to Kapita's notability in Kinshasa, he was able to protect these scientists from any government discontent involving outside research at the time. [4] Peers described Kapita as being true to his ideals and well trained. [4] [6]
Patients in the wards of Mama Yemo were clearly affected by AIDS per the clinical definitions in place at that time. Almost all of the patients confirmed to have AIDS using laboratory based tests were already identified by Kapita without laboratory tests. [4] [7] [8] Kapita is credited by his collaborators as being one of the first people in Africa to identify the presence of AIDS. [8] The visiting researchers would soon realize the extent of AIDS in Africa and began research in Kinshasa. The resulting collaboration between African, American, and European scientists would become known as Project SIDA. [1] [4] [5] [7]
Bila M. Kapita published his own book in 1988 titled SIDA en Afrique. [9]
From 1984 to 1991 Kapita collaborated with Project SIDA at Mama Yemo, producing between 20 and 30 research articles on the transmission, history, and future of HIV/AIDS in Africa. Work was conducted in Kapita's hospital early on in the program to increase chances of approval from government authorities. [4]
Many of Kapita's articles focused on the rate of heterosexual transmission that was largely ignored by the United States in the early 1980s. [1] [10]
Kapita was present at the first International AIDS Conference in Atlanta, Georgia in 1985. [1] Also in attendance were Project SIDA collaborators Peter Piot and Nzila Nzilambi—as well as thousands of other scientists. [7] During the second International AIDS Conference in Paris, France, Kapita informed the community of his retrospective discovery of increased cases of Kaposi's sarcoma and cytomegalovirus, indicators that HIV/AIDS likely existed in Kinshasa as far back as 1975. [7] [11] Prior to public knowledge of HIV prevalence in Zaire at the time, Kapita faced the threat of becoming a political prisoner under Mobutu Sese Seko’s regime for acknowledging the issue on a global stage without permission from the government. [12] [5]
In 1990, as the civil war was beginning in Zaire, Kapita worked with Peter Piot in arranging an international AIDS conference in Kinshasa. The proceeds of the conference were returned to the region through donations to Mama Yemo Hospital and the establishment of a health clinic in Kapita's village. [1]
Kapita's work continued for a few years following the 1991 demise of Project SIDA. A notable collaboration featuring Kapita in 1992 was the World Health Organization publication: AIDS in Africa: A Manual for Physicians. [13]
Following the end of Project SIDA due to civil war in Zaire, Kapita continued to appear on international research articles, the last being published in 1993. [14] Kapita continued to work at Mama Yemo, until at least 1997, treating patients with HIV/AIDS. [15] [8]
A hallmark of Project SIDA was the training of Congolese researchers, resulting in many well-trained doctors such as Kapita existing in Kinshasa. American and European collaborators established traditional research procedure in Kinshasa, establishing an institutional review board led by Kapita. [4]
Kapita and the other Zairian collaborators of Project SIDA wished to return to research, but opportunities following the civil war were limited. [8] Currently, Kapita practices cardiology at the Centre Medical De Kinshasa in Gombe, Kinshasa. [16]
The Duesberg hypothesis is the claim that AIDS is not caused by HIV, but instead that AIDS is caused by noninfectious factors such as recreational and pharmaceutical drug use and that HIV is merely a harmless passenger virus. The hypothesis was popularized by University of California, Berkeley professor Peter Duesberg, from whom the hypothesis gets its name. The scientific consensus is that the Duesberg hypothesis is incorrect and that HIV is the cause of AIDS. The most prominent supporters of the hypothesis are Duesberg himself, biochemist and vitamin proponent David Rasnick, and journalist Celia Farber. The scientific community generally contends that Duesberg's arguments in favor of the hypothesis are the result of cherry-picking predominantly outdated scientific data and selectively ignoring evidence that demonstrates HIV's role in causing AIDS.
The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of Lentivirus that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive. Without treatment, the average survival time after infection with HIV is estimated to be 9 to 11 years, depending on the HIV subtype.
The management of HIV/AIDS normally includes the use of multiple antiretroviral drugs as a strategy to control HIV infection. There are several classes of antiretroviral agents that act on different stages of the HIV life-cycle. The use of multiple drugs that act on different viral targets is known as highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). HAART decreases the patient's total burden of HIV, maintains function of the immune system, and prevents opportunistic infections that often lead to death. HAART also prevents the transmission of HIV between serodiscordant same-sex and opposite-sex partners so long as the HIV-positive partner maintains an undetectable viral load.
The spread of HIV/AIDS has affected millions of people worldwide; AIDS is considered a pandemic. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that in 2016 there were 36.7 million people worldwide living with HIV/AIDS, with 1.8 million new HIV infections per year and 1 million deaths due to AIDS. Misconceptions about HIV and AIDS arise from several different sources, from simple ignorance and misunderstandings about scientific knowledge regarding HIV infections and the cause of AIDS to misinformation propagated by individuals and groups with ideological stances that deny a causative relationship between HIV infection and the development of AIDS. Below is a list and explanations of some common misconceptions and their rebuttals.
Sir Peter Karel, Baron Piot, is a Belgian-British microbiologist known for his research into Ebola and AIDS.
AIDS is caused by a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which originated in non-human primates in Central and West Africa. While various sub-groups of the virus acquired human infectivity at different times, the present pandemic had its origins in the emergence of one specific strain – HIV-1 subgroup M – in Léopoldville in the Belgian Congo in the 1920s.
The global epidemic of HIV/AIDS began in 1981, and is an ongoing worldwide public health issue. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), by 2023, HIV/AIDS had killed approximately 40.4 million people, and approximately 39 million people were infected with HIV globally. Of these 29.8 million people, 75% are receiving antiretroviral treatment. There were about 630,000 deaths from HIV/AIDS in 2022. The 2015 Global Burden of Disease Study estimated that the global incidence of HIV infection peaked in 1997 at 3.3 million per year. Global incidence fell rapidly from 1997 to 2005, to about 2.6 million per year. Incidence of HIV has continued to fall, decreasing by 23% from 2010 to 2020, with progress dominated by decreases in Eastern Africa and Southern Africa. As of 2020, there are approximately 1.5 million new infections of HIV per year globally.
Following infection with HIV-1, the rate of clinical disease progression varies between individuals. Factors such as host susceptibility, genetics and immune function, health care and co-infections as well as viral genetic variability may affect the rate of progression to the point of needing to take medication in order not to develop AIDS.
HIV/AIDS was recognised as a novel illness in the early 1980s. An AIDS case is classified as "early" if the death occurred before 5 June 1981, when the AIDS epidemic was formally recognized by medical professionals in the United States.
The subtypes of HIV include two main subtypes, known as HIV type 1 (HIV-1) and HIV type 2 (HIV-2). These subtypes have distinct genetic differences and are associated with different epidemiological patterns and clinical characteristics.
Kinshasa General Hospital is a hospital located in the Gombe commune of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. Before the ousting of President Mobutu Sese Seko, it was known as Mama Yemo Hospital after the president's mother. The 2000-bed hospital registers over 3,000 consultations daily. It was one of the first places where AIDS was observed.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo was one of the first African countries to recognize HIV, registering cases of HIV among hospital patients as early as 1983.
William Taliaferro Close was an American surgeon who played a major role in stemming a 1976 outbreak of the Ebola virus in Zaire, the first major outbreak of the viral hemorrhagic fever in Central Africa, and preventing its further spread. He was also the father of actress Glenn Close and husband of Bettine Moore Close.
David M. Serwadda is a Ugandan physician, medical researcher, academic, public health specialist and medical administrator. Currently he is a Professor of Public Health at Makerere University School of Public Health, one of the schools of Makerere University College of Health Sciences, a semi-autonomous constituent college of Makerere University, the oldest university in Uganda. Serwadda is also a founding member of Accordia Global Health Foundation's Academic Alliance.
Jacques Leibowitch was a French medical doctor and clinical researcher known for his contributions to the knowledge and treatment of HIV and AIDS, starting with his initial designation of a human retrovirus as the cause of AIDS, and his ground-breaking use of triple combination therapy for the effective control of HIV in the patient. A practicing physician in the infectiology department of the Raymond Poincaré University Hospital of Garches, University lecturer Emeritus, he led the treatment program ICCARRE that proposes a dramatic reduction of weekly anti-HIV drug intake, down to 2-3 anti-viral pills a day taken 2 to 3 or 4 days a week, as opposed to the presently recommended seven days a week, as still universally prescribed. These reduced medical dosages are adequate, necessary and sufficient according to the results of his exploratory clinical research carried out since 2003. He is the author of the books "Un virus étrange venu d'ailleurs", and "Pour en finir avec le sida".
Project SIDA (1984–1991), or Projet SIDA, was a joint scientific project between Zaire, the United States, and Belgium to study AIDS in Central Africa. Headquartered in Kinshasa, Zaire (DRC), Projet SIDA was designed as a collaboration between foreign scientists with experience studying epidemics and local scientists and physicians familiar with the local culture and customs. Initiated in 1984, Project SIDA began under the direction of Jonathan Mann with funding from the U.S. and Belgium, as well as support from the Zairian government. Project SIDA was based at Mama Yemo hospital in Kinshasa.
Elizabeth Ngugi was a Kenyan Professor of Community Health at the University of Nairobi, and a nurse by trade. Her major contributions to her university's program was her research and work with local prostitutes to prevent HIV/AIDS transmission. Ngugi is described as the first Kenyan nurse to become a professor.
Fred Mhalu is a microbiologist and medical researcher from Tanzania. His main area of study revolves around infectious diseases and intervention. Ever since 1986, he has been a main contributor to the information about AIDS in Africa. As a co-coordinator of a Tanzanian-Swedish research collaboration called TANSWED, he was involved in many research projects that lead to multiple publications in medical journals. His more recent research on HIV/AIDS involves studying breast cancer in HIV prevalent areas, evaluating prevention of mother-to-child-transmission of HIV-1, and observing sexual behaviors of high risk populations for HIV-1.
Souleymane Mboup is a Senegalese microbiologist, medical researcher, and colonel in the Armed Forces of Senegal. In 1985, he was a member of the first team to identify HIV-2, a form of HIV that is typically found in West Africa and is less transmissible than the more common HIV-1. Mboup has contributed to the improvement of Senegal's research infrastructure throughout his career. Among his published works, he is known for editing the 1994 reference book AIDS in Africa. Mboup is currently the President of L'Institut de Recherche en Santé, de Surveillance Épidémiologique et de Formations (IRESSEF) in Diamniadio, Senegal.
Eugene Nzila Nzilambi, also referred to as N. Nzila, Nzila Nzilambi, or Eugene Nzila, is a Zairean scientist and physician at the Department of Public Health in Kinshasa, now known as the Ministry of Public Health. He played at important role in establishing Project SIDA in Zaire, along with several international scientists. While conducting research, he opened a walk-in clinic and has since produced a lot of research on the HIV virus.