Campaign: Global AIDS-Care-Watch Campaign launches today
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23 March 2005
Hidden health-care crisis denies effective, affordable HIV
treatments to millions with HIV
To comment on this ACW Launch Statement, please go to:
http://aidscarewatch.blogspot.com
A prevailing focus on the provision of antiretroviral (ARV)
drugs is denying millions of people with HIV access to effective
and affordable treatment options that could extend their lives.
In the first three months of 2005 alone, more people have al-
ready died from AIDS-related conditions than the total number
taking ARVs throughout the world.
According to an unprecedented global campaign and civil society
partnership being launched this week to coincide with World
Stop-TB Day, this grim milestone is a stark reminder that as we
grapple with the scale-up of global ARV access initiatives, we
have to keep people with HIV alive in all possible ways.
The AIDS-Care-Watch (ACW) Campaign draws attention to the hidden
healthcare crisis and leadership oversights that allow millions
to die because other life-extending care options are being seri-
ously neglected.
"The ACW campaign aims to raise awareness about all care and
treatment options that are keeping people with HIV alive, par-
ticularly the vast majority who are waiting for antiretroviral
treatment," said Abigail Erikson, Campaign Coordinator. "The ba-
sic principle of the campaign is that humanity cannot let mil-
lions of people die from HIV-related conditions when life-saving
care and treatment options exist."
While AIDS-related deaths have fallen dramatically since the in-
troduction of ARVs ten years ago, this has only happened where
they are available and affordable, and that mostly means in
wealthy nations. Today, only one-in-eight of the six million
people who need them have access to life-saving ARVs. The vast
majority of these people live in developing countries.
"Of course ARV drugs are critical to keeping us physically well
- but without nutritious food, without additional therapies, and
without the love and care of those who surround us, those drugs
do little for us," explained Alice Welbourn of the International
Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS (ICW), one of the or-
ganisations partnering the new campaign.
Tuberculosis (TB) is the biggest killer of people living with
HIV/AIDS (PWHA), who have a 50% lifetime risk of developing the
disease. Without prompt diagnosis and treatment for TB, death
can come within weeks to someone with HIV. Effective TB treat-
ment can extend lives of PWHA by at least two to three years and
carries a 10US$ price tag.
Studies conducted in four African nations have also shown that
preventive treatment of AIDS-related opportunistic infections
with a cheap and safe, broad-spectrum antibiotic called 'cotri-
moxazole', can reduce HIV-related death rates by up 50%. The
evidence is so compelling that it prompted the World Health Or-
ganization (WHO) and the Joint United Nations Programme on
HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) to recommend - five years ago - that the anti-
biotic should be given to Africans with symptomatic HIV infec-
tion. The annual cost of cotrimoxazole treatment is 6US$.
Despite being one of the areas of public health where we know
the most, latest estimates to be released on World Stop-TB Day
this week are expected to confirm that TB incidence in Africa is
climbing sharply, especially in countries heavily impacted by
the HIV epidemic, and that only about half of all TB cases in
Africa are even detected. Similarly, the routine use of cotri-
moxazole in developing countries, particularly sub-Saharan Af-
rica, remains minimal despite explicit UN recommendations.
"People living with HIV/AIDS continue to die before their time
because of a lack of appropriate treatment and a lack of under-
standing and information" said Greg Gray, Regional Coordinator
of the Asia Pacific Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS
(APN+). "We know only too well the importance of promoting pre-
vention for opportunistic infections, yet still even this most
basic and cost effective treatment is out of reach for many who
desperately need it. APN+ is pleased to be a partner in this
campaign and hope this can be a timely reminder to governments
in making them accountable to the UNGASS declaration commitments
and the 'significant progress' they have promised."
The AIDS-Care-Watch Campaign stresses that advocating for the
scale-up of such care services is not an excuse for governments,
international agencies or communities to slow down or do less in
their ARV expansion efforts - it must be additional to those ef-
forts.
The campaign receives strong endorsements from entities such as
the World Health Organization (WHO).
"We strongly support the goals of the ACW campaign because a ho-
listic approach to care for all HIV-infected people is essen-
tial," said Dr Paul Nunn, of the WHO Stop TB Department. "There
is no point in getting people onto ARVs at great expense, only
to have them die for lack of TB treatment with a fraction of
those costs."
During the course of this year, AIDS-Care-Watch is working with
country-based partners to monitor whether previous commitments
have been translated into care services at the local and na-
tional levels. The campaign uses a backbone of country-based re-
porting, documentation and analysis to hold relevant institu-
tions and organisations accountable against their previous
HIV/AIDS care commitments.
2005 is a benchmark year for a related prior commitment by over
180 governments. Four years ago, the UN General Assembly held an
unprecedented special session on HIV/AIDS - the first time the
assembly had ever addressed a specific health issue. The result-
ing Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS, signed by all Member
States of the UN, made explicit pledges to "make significant
progress in implementing comprehensive [HIV/AIDS] care strate-
gies" by 2005.
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The AIDS-Care-Watch campaign is a global initiative with the
goal of reducing the number of HIV-related deaths in 2005. The
campaign has over 100 non-governmental and civil society part-
ners. For more information about the campaign and its partners,
please go to http://www.aidscarewatch.org or
mailto:info@aidscarewatch.org
--
Abigail Erikson
Global Campaign Coordinator
mailTO:info@aidscarewatch.org