The disease is characterized by fever, chills, headache, malaise, prostration and leukocytosis that manifests in one or more of the following principal clinical forms:

(10) Wishing to have a coherent approach at European level and to act effectively against HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in the developing countries, the participating States have agreed to establish a clinical trials partnership between European countries and the developing countries in order to obtain a critical mass in terms of human and financial resources to carry out effective, ethical and appropriate clinical trials in partnership with and in developing countries, in view of obtaining products adapted to the local conditions and accessible to local populations.

Research will focus on: developing promising candidate interventions (vaccines, therapies and HIV microbicides) against the target diseases by sponsoring research over the full spectrum from basic molecular research, taking advantage of microbial genomics, through to pre-clinical testing and proof-of-principle; establishing a clinical trials programme to unite and support Europe's clinical trial activities specifically targeted at interventions for use in developing countries; establishing an AIDS Therapy Trials Network in Europe to improve the coherence and complementarity of clinical trials of AIDS therapies for European use.

- The proposal for the creation, under Article 169 of the Treaty, of a platform for clinical testing to combat infectious diseases associated with poverty (malaria, Aids, tuberculosis), which involves a number of non-EU countries, [19] and the study of other possible activities based on this mechanism, in particular in the fields of air traffic management and control (ATM/ATC) and sustainable development.

It is the objective of the European Clinical Trials Platform to support the development of new interventions against human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS), malaria and tuberculosis for use in developing countries and to constitute a coherent and comprehensive European initiative that will be the natural partner of already relevant networks and initiatives like the AMVTN.

Work on the three diseases, malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS as well as other diseases identified as having high international priority has now reached the stage where a clinical test platform must be set up.