E-drug: HIV treatment in developing countries
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Delivering the goods - HIV treatment for the poor
Publication and email discussion
An estimated 40 million people are infected with HIV and developing
countries bear more than 90 percent of this global burden. Yet less
than one percent of people with HIV are currently receiving drug
treatment. New research shows that HIV treatment can be provided
through existing health services in developing countries, despite
their inadequacies. Insights Health, published by development
research reporting service id21, also argues that an 'emergency
response', to increase access to treatment rapidly, must be
accompanied by longer-term development of the health sector.
Insights Health is available online at:
www.id21.org/insights/insights-h02/index.html
An email discussion will soon give readers the chance to share their
views on this subject.
The nine research articles in the report discuss practicalities of
the delivery of HIV treatment and care in poor countries and reports
on innovative strategies that treat people with HIV:
* Brazil delivers anti-HIV drugs to 113,000 patients through the
public health system. This has saved the government around US$ 1
billion over five years through reduced hospitalisation rates.
* Partners in Health provides treatment for more than 100 patients
with advanced AIDS in rural Haiti using the local tuberculosis (TB)
control infrastructure.
* M�dicins sans Fronti�res is helping to treat AIDS patients in
Thailand through district hospitals.
Other articles focus on HIV testing and counselling, lessons for HIV
treatment from TB control programmes, the costs of increasing access
to treatment, and strategies for reducing barriers to access to care.
To follow up on the issues raised in Insights Health and to give a
voice to stakeholders, id21 is running an email discussion on the
topic, from 22nd April to 31st May, 2002. The conclusions of the
discussion will be presented at the International AIDS Conference in
Barcelona in July, 2002. To join, send an email to
lyris@lyris.ids.ac.uk with the message: subscribe hiv firstname
lastname, e.g. subscribe hiv Emily Smith. More details are available
at www.id21.org/hiv.
For more information, please contact:
Heidi Brown,
Health Editor, id21
Tel: +44 (0)1273 877115
H.Brown@ids.ac.uk
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