"Free by 5" HIV/AIDS Treatment Initiative: Sign-On by Nov. 20th!
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Free by Five, sign the declaration here:
http://www.nu.ac.za/heard/free/freeby5.asp
Or send your name and information to Sabrina Lee
mailto:Freeby5@hotmail.com -- see more on this below!
Contact HEARD
Health Economics and HIV/AIDS Research Division
9th Flr Shepstone Building
University of KwaZulu-Natal
Durban, 4001 South Africa
Tel: +27-31-260-2592
Fax: +27-31-260-2587
mailto:heard@nu.ac.za
Dear Colleagues,
HIV/AIDS treatment including anti-retroviral therapy is increas-
ingly available throughout the developing world. However, the
drugs and associated laboratory tests are rarely provided for
free. Most people living with HIV will die simply because they
cannot afford the contribution which is sought from them.
There is evidence that user-fees for AIDS treatment are barriers
to equity, efficiency and quality of treatment programs. They
threaten the possibility of scaling up these programs.
We believe that, for human rights, public health and economic
reasons, there should be free access for all to a comprehensive
minimum medical package, including ARVs.
Faced with the emergency and gravity of the situation, people
from HEARD, IRD, MSF and others have developed the Free by
Five declaration to emphasize the necessity of free treatment.
The ultimate objectives of the Free by 5 Declaration are:
* to provide economic and public health evidence that could help
inform the decisions of policy makers and governments on the is-
sue of free treatment;
* to urge UNAIDS, WHO, the Global Fund, the World Bank, PEPFAR
and other donors to adopt guidelines and actively promote the
principle and implementation of free treatment;
* to assist activists and others in their advocacy efforts to
obtain free treatment.
We are asking for your commitment to the principle of free
HIV/AIDS treatment. Please sign the Free by 5 Declaration.
If you wish to sign the declaration please:
Send an e-mail to Sabrina Lee (mailto:Freeby5@hotmail.com) be-
fore the November 20th deadline.
State your name, position, organization and contact details.
Indicate whether you sign on behalf of your organization or as
an individual.
The first signatories of the declaration include: Stephen Lewis,
UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa; Alice Desclaux, M.D.,
Professor of Anthropology and Director of Research Center on
Culture, Health and Societies (CReCSS), University Paul Cézanne,
Aix-Marseille, France; Hélène Rossert-Blavier, Director of Aides
(France), Vice-President of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tu-
berculosis and Malaria; Gorik Ooms, Executive Director, MSF-
Belgium; Bernard Taverne, Anthropologist, M.D., Institut de Re-
cherche pour le Développement, Dakar, Senegal; Alan Whiteside,
Professor and Director of Health Economics and HIV/AIDS Research
Division (HEARD), University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Af-
rica; and Nicoli Nattras, Professor of Economics and Director of
Centre for Social Science Research, University of Cape Town,
South Africa;
Signatories will be updated regularly on the website
http://www.heard.org.za where the declaration is available in
English and soon in French. The declaration will be launched at
a series of events at the end of November 2004.
We look forward to receiving your support!