RFI: Help (looking for ARV medicines) (3)
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Dear Dawn McGuire and All,
Hello and fantastic to hear this suggestion, occasioned by a posting
I recently made for an individual looking for treatment options for
his sister and her child in Ethiopia. I am taking the liberty of
posting this widely, as there have been many great suggestions from a
number of sources for the individual(s) concerned, and your idea and
inquiry below dovetails with a request I received this past spring
from ACT-UP/Healthgap Coalition and someone at MSF to check with
sources in Africa and the US about the availability of ARV treatments
and details like costs, something I did not get much response on at
that time (probably because so many of us are so busy acting up al-
ready!).
Your own idea, as I read it, is for the website to act as a source of
advice where there is some treatment availability, and I am wondering
if that could be broadened to include the kinds of feedback and post-
ings which happened in reference to this one item, so people (lay-
people, medical personnel, researchers, NGOs) will get a sense of
what is available (and not!), where, prices, and the like? This could
be done anecdotally (like postings re: the immediate request) so that
no-one will feel pressure to create an overall program or update the
website daily, for example (i.e. something which could become onerous
for any one person or group). This information is becoming increas-
ingly more critical, and not only with regard to Africa but elsewhere
like India (I have also posted this to an India AIDS e-forum).
A related inquiry, something which a friend at Physicians for Human
Rights has been pursuing (he also posted for info on this and re-
ceived scant returns), is the state of health infrastructure in Afri-
can countries, and how that might be improved to deliver better
healthcare, including access to ARVs and how they are handled once
available.
I have recently been in contact with a range of organizations and in-
dividuals -- EQUINET, people looking for information on the upcoming
International Education and Advocacy Summit ("treatment prepared-
ness"), and our own organization and numerous colleagues in Kenya and
Africa with whom we network -- who would be eager for something like
what you propose, I think, and there is also a group in Seattle WA
called NCATA (Northwest Coast Alliance for AIDS Treatment in Africa,
with which KAIPPG is affiliated) who I think would be as well (and
somewhat local to you!). There may be some efforts in this regard al-
ready: there is an organisation in Boston called "Search for a Cure"
which may have some of this info posted on its site (I believe they
have this type of info at any rate, even if not posted) and I imagine
that HealthGap, MSF, and others have been gathering same, though is
anyone doing a website? And how about coordinating with e-forums,
like P2P, GAA, KCA, AF-AIDS, AFRO-NETS, ProCAARE, CABA, OVC, Core Fo-
rum, AIDS-India, and others? ProCAARE may have something along this
line with a forum, but perhaps not with a site such as you are pro-
posing.
Thanks for the wonderful suggestion and hope this can somehow be co-
ordinated and developed, as many of us would be grateful for its
presence. I am sending this to several individuals as well, one a
former volunteer now with Pathfinder International who has envisioned
something along these lines herself, and hope that you will get some
good feedback and potential partners.
Many thanks to everyone who has responded to the original posting and
will respond to this one, and all best wishes,
Janet Feldman
Director, KAIPPG/International
mailto:kaippg@earthlink.net
http://www.kaippg.org