The government of Botswana will provide antiretrovirals free
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05 June 2001 - Short News AFP
Source: E-MED - Press review on AIDS
http://www.medisite-pro.fr/
Botswana, the country counting the largest rate HIV/AIDS in the
world, hopes to have in place by the end of the year a programme of
free supply of anti-retroviral drugs to patients, indicated president
Festus Mogae.
Mr. Mogae, who addressed the press on Monday during a conference on
AIDS at Gaborone, indicated that the government "did not begin the
antiretroviral programme yet, but hopes that it will be in place at
the end of the year ", reported on Tuesday the South-African agency
of press SAPA.
The Botswana president Mogae specified that a campaign sponsored by
the government will be launched soon to encourage Botswana people to
adopt the 60,000 to 80,000 AIDS-orphans of the country, with a public
financial assistance for taking responsibility of the children.
"The cost of the antiretroviral programme has not been quantified
yet, but pharmaceutical companies proposed less expensive drugs to
us", declared Mogae, who indicated that the government "works with
these firms to evaluate the operational needs for the programme".
The American pharmaceutical giants Merck and Bristol-board-Myers
Squib, which announced during the past year price cuts of their drugs
for anti-AIDS therapies in Africa, will be partners of the Botswana
programme.
The representative of the United Nations Development Programme [UNDP]
in Botswana, Macharia Kamau, indicated that only the financial
resources of the country drawn from its diamond industry, gave to the
government the means of a massive fight against pandemic.
"Without a careful management of its income reserves from diamond, it
would not have been possible to build the infrastructure nor to buy
the drugs to fight the disease", he declared.
In addition Botswana already engaged a programme of availability free
drugs to the sero-positive pregnant women, to avoid the transmission
of the virus to the child to be born.
"It was said to us that one has a good likelihood to prevent (the
transmission) in the majority of the cases", declared Mogae.
One baby in eight is born sero-positive in Botswana, which counts
more than 300,000 infected people, that is to say more than 35% of
the adults, for a population of 1,7 million inhabitants, according to
figures of UNAIDS and (UNDP).
[Reproduced from E-Med with thanks to Carinne Bruneton, translated
under 'fair use' by C. Labadie]
----------- Original text ----------------
E-MED: Revue de presse sur le sida
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http://www.medisite-pro.fr/
Le gouvernement du Botswana va fournir des antir�troviraux gratuite-
ment 05 Juin 2001 - Br�ve AFP
Le Botswana, le pays comptant le plus fort taux de pr�valence VIH-
sida au monde, esp�re avoir en place d'ici la fin de l'ann�e un pro-
grammeme de fourniture gratuite de m�dicaments anti-r�troviraux aux
malades, a indiqu� le pr�sident Festus Mogae.
M. Mogae, qui s'exprimait lundi face � des journalistes lors d'une
conf�rence sur le sida � Gaborone, a indiqu� que le gouvernement "n'a
pas encore commenc� le programme antir�troviral, mais esp�rons
qu'il sera en place � la fin de l'ann�e", a rapport� mardi l'agence
sud-africaine de presse SAPA.
Le pr�sident botswanais Mogae a pr�cis� qu'une campagne parrain�e par
le gouvernement sera prochainement lanc�e pour inciter les Botswanais
� adopter les quelque 60.000 � 80.000 orphelins du sida du pays, avec
une aide financi�re publique pour la prise en charge des enfants.
"Le co�t du programme antir�troviral n'a pas encore �t� chiffr�,
mais les compagnies pharmaceutiques nous ont propos� des m�dicaments
moins chers", a d�clar� Mogae, qui a indiqu� que le gouvernement
"travaille avec ces firmes pour �valuer les besoins op�rationnels du
programme".
Les g�ants pharmaceutiques am�ricains Merck et Bristol-Myers Squib,
qui ont annonc� au cours de l'ann�e �coul�e des baisses de prix de
leurs m�dicaments pour les th�rapies antisida en Afrique, seront par-
tenaires du programme botswanais.
Le repr�sentant du Programme des Nations unies pour le d�veloppemen-
tau Botswana, Macharia Kamau, a indiqu� que seules les ressources fi-
nanci�res du pays tir�es de son industrie diamantaire, donnaient au
gouvernement les moyens d'une lutte massive contre la pand�mie.
"Sans une prudente gestion de ses ressources accumul�es des revenus
du diamant, il n'aurait pas �t� possible de b�tir l'infrastructure ni
d'acheter les m�dicaments pour combattre la maladie", a-t-il d�clar�.
Le Botswana a par ailleurs d�j� engag� un programme de mise � dispo-
-sition gratuite de m�dicaments au femmes enceintes s�ropositives,
pour �viter la transmission du virus � l'enfant � na�tre.
"On nous a dit que l'on avait une bonne chance de pr�venir (la trans
mission) dans la majorit� des cas", a d�clar� Mogae.
Un b�b� sur huit na�t s�ropositif au Botswana, qui compte plus de
300.000 personnes infect�es, soit plus de 35% des adultes, pour une
population de 1,7 millions d'habitants, selon des chiffres d'ONUSIDA
et (PNUD).
Source:
http://www.healthnet.org/programmes/e-med-hma/e-med.200106/msg00007.html
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