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AFRICA: Drugs debate takes centre stage at ICASA

Photo: UNAIDS
Burkina Faso President Blaise Campaore with Christine Kafando, a woman living with HIV
ouagadougou, 12 December 2001 (PlusNews) - The debate over access to affordable drugs has dominated the 12th International Conference on AIDS and STDs in Africa
(ICASA), with participants at the Ouagadougou meeting calling on rich countries to provide the South with the funds to buy life-prolonging antiretrovirals.

In his opening address, Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore urged international solidarity to beat the disease. "The drugs are in the North and the sick people are in the South," he said. "If we hope to turn back the disease, it will be thanks to voluntary and conscious mobilisation of all strata of the society and the dynamism of the international partnership we are building everyday."

Some 5,000 people - including scientists, politicians, aid workers and traditional healers from 61 countries - are taking part in the 9-13 December conference, which has focused on issues of access to medicines, the search for a vaccine, and how to decentralise health services.

Stephen Lewis, the UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy for AIDS in Africa, told a press conference that 2002 must be a "breakthrough year" in terms of access to treatment. "Africa is now mobilised and ready to take advantage of all the plans that are in place, but it needs a dramatic infusion of donor dollars and that money is not yet there," he said.

Only 30,000 Africans living with AIDS are receiving antiretroviral (ARV) treatment. Although the UN system's "accelerated access" initiative has increased the number of people receiving ARVs in 10 African countries - through negotiated agreements with pharmaceutical companies that have cut prices on some drugs by around 85 percent - it remains a drop in the ocean.

The reality is that 70 percent of the total number of those infected with HIV live in sub-Saharan Africa - a colossal 28.1 million people. AIDS killed 2.3 million people this year and there were an estimated 3.4 million new HIV infections in 2001, according to UNAIDS.

In a statement released on Monday, UNAIDS said there was broad agreement that scaling up AIDS efforts from community to national level was essential to link local, district, national and regional decision-making, to overcome rural-urban divides, and to involve all social and economic sectors in the response to AIDS.

"These efforts will cost money - to effectively respond to the epidemic, AIDS spending in developing countries must rise to US $7-10 billion a year. In sub-Saharan Africa, current spending is only a tenth of the US $4 billion the continent needs," UNAIDS said.

"Turning back the epidemic requires nothing more and nothing less than keeping the commitments that governments have made in the past year," said Dr Peter Piot, Executive Director of UNAIDS. "From the Abuja conference in April to the UN Special Session on HIV/AIDS in June, there have been ample promises of resources and political will. It is now time to turn those commitments into action."

Meanwhile, according to a study conducted in Senegal, HIV drugs have proven effective in fighting AIDS, despite concerns they would be poorly administered and produce super strains of the disease, The Associated Press reported on Tuesday.

The Senegalese study, presented to ICASA, showed between 70 and 80 percent of patients had properly followed their drug regimes for several years, said Ibra Nboye, director of the African Society Against AIDS. "African doctors are capable not only of treating AIDS patients, but also doing all the follow-ups," Nboye said. "We have the materials and the well-informed personnel required to do it."

If patients don't stick to the strict regimes required to take the medicines, studies have shown the virus can mutate into a more virulent strain that can be passed on to others, AP said. Critics argue Africa does not have the health infrastructure and qualified health workers necessary to properly administer the drugs.

Nboye's study surveyed 350 HIV-positive patients who were given antiretroviral treatments in Senegal over a 39-month period, beginning in 1998. Results of a similar study carried out by the Paris-based National Agency for AIDS Research were also presented at the Ouagadougou conference and showed similar results.

"If we give African AIDS patients access to treatment, we can reduce the mortality linked to AIDS by 60 to 70 percent," Nboye said.

The 12th ICASA is also seeking ways to empower local communities to better target and tackle the epidemic, with some 2,500 community organisations taking part in the conference. The World Bank announced the allocation of US $500 million to fight AIDS in Africa from January 2002. One of the criteria for eligibility is that 50-60 percent of spending must go to community activities.

Visit the official ICASA Website at http://www.cisma2001.bf/index.htm

Theme (s): Care/Treatment - PlusNews,

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

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