E-drug: 11th Model List of Essential Drugs (cont'd)
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[Cross-posted from treatment-access@hivnet.ch. Thanks, HH]
Dear friends,
I think we should be very clear about the difference between setting
public health priorities, and including medicines as essential drugs. We
should be looking, in my opinion, for effective solutions for the
HIV/AIDS epidemic which includes treatment. What we have now are
medicines that are extremely difficult to get and manage for most
people that need them and have limited efficacy. I believe our main
problem in the treatment area is that we still do not have the
treatments we need, namely effective, safe, manageable and
affordable. Those products when available should be included as
essential drugs.
I agree with Richard in the sense that it is too early to have the
therapies we have for HIV/AIDS included as essential drugs.
Moreover, putting them in the model list would put enormous
pressures on governments and will divert very scarce resources. The
products available are not good or safe enough.
On the other hand there is no doubt HIV/AIDS is a major public health
problem and we need better solutions. I think we should continue to
work towards having the available treatments, including
anti-retrovirals cheaper, but we should press internationally to get
better research in the areas of prophylaxis and treatments that can
become real solutions for the millions of people that suffer and will
suffer this disease and thus become essential drugs and hopefully
vaccines.
Nadine Gasman
Mexico
tel: 525-2510283
fax: 525-2512518
e-mail: gasmanna@netmex.com
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