Three percent of African AIDS patients have access to antiretrovirals

DAKAR (AFP) Mar 31, 2004
Only three percent of the 3.9 million AIDS patients in Africa who could benefit from anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) have access to them, delegates at a forum were told here Wednesday.

Only 150,000 HIV and AIDS patients around the continent benefit from anti-retroviral drugs, according to a study conducted by the Accelerating Access Initiative (AAI), a partnership between the United Nations and six pharmaceutical laboratories.

According to Senegal's Health Minister Issa Mbaye Samb, the price of ARVs has plunged "on average by 85 percent in the past two years," making the drugs more accessible.

Another change on the African health map easing access to ARVs is the fact that 40 sub-Saharan African countries now have national strategies to fight HIV/AIDS.

But despite the changes, the number of HIV-positive sub-Saharan Africans with access to ARVs remains minuscule at two percent, compared with 84 percent in Latin America, according to AAI.

"People said it was too expensive, too complex, so it was difficult to install in these countries," said Joep Lange, head of the group Pharm Access International.

"In a lot of African countries, governments are not functional and very poor, so how could you expect something to work?" he asked.

Delegates from 19 countries in Africa, the Americas and Europe took part in the forum, which ended Wednesday.

Lange called the drugs' arrival on the African market as a "revolution" that had clearly prolonged patients' lives.

"Many patients can't even afford to eat, let along pay for expensive treatments," said Papa Salif Sow, a Senegalese researcher.

Pharm Access and co-organizer Roche, a Swiss maker of ARVs, stressed that countries such as Senegal, Botswana and Uganda had made great strides towards improving access to the drugs.

In Senegal, where access to the drugs has been free since January, 50 patients have received treatment in a cooperation project with Roche that began nearly three years ago, Sow said, adding: "The patients are doing very well now."

Ivory Coast, Kenya and Uganda are also benefitting from the project.

Sow said that the UN World Health Organization's goal of delivering ARVs to three million people in developing countries by the end of 2005 cannot be attained without further training of medical personnel and increased AIDS testing.

Some 90 percent of people in the world do not know their HIV status, he noted.

TERRA.WIRE