E-drug: Nigerian AIDS Drug Trial Delayed
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[Copied from Ip-health. KM]
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011210/wl/nigeria_aids_1.html
Monday December 10 4:31 PM ET
Nigerian AIDS Drug Trial Delayed
By GLENN McKENZIE, Associated Press Writer
LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) - A long-awaited program using cheap generic drugs
to treat AIDS (news - web sites) was delayed Monday for the second time
this fall, leaving millions of Nigerians wondering when they could begin
treatment.
Only 10,000 adults and 5,000 children out of the 3.5 million Nigerians
said to have AIDS will be covered by the trial program, though the
specific participants haven't yet been named.
A Nigerian Ministry of Health official in the capital Abuja said
shipments of anti-retroviral medicines manufactured by Indian companies
Cipla and Rambazy had arrived in Nigeria.
The official said, however, that unexpected ``organizational delays''
had slowed down the distribution of the medicines to 18 health centers
where the trial is to begin. The official spoke on condition of
anonymity. It was hoped that some patients could begin treatment before
Christmas.
The long-awaited program is the continent's first trial of the generic
anti-retroviral drugs and is hailed as one of the most ambitious to date
in Africa.
The trial was initially launched by Nigeria's Health Minister in early
September, but was later postponed until Monday - apparently to allow
time for Nigerian pharmaceutical regulators to legalize and import the
drugs.
``We are hopeful,'' said Ne Ekpe, an official with the National AIDS
Alliance, a well-known non-government group representing people infected
with the AIDS-causing virus HIV (news - web sites). ``But we don't know
anything. We remain in the dark.''
According to the government, 15,000 people will be covered in the
program's first year. But that is only a fraction of the millions of
Nigerians believed to have the disease. Most people in Nigeria, Africa's
most-populous country with 120 million people, earn just a few dollars a
day and cannot afford expensive medical care.
Patients taking part in the trial are expected to pay less than half of
the $350 per patient per year of the drug price paid by the government.
Doctors' and other fees are also expected to be waived.
A government survey shows that the average national infection rate was
5.8 percent among people between ages 15 and 45. But in more than 30 of
85 locations studied, HIV prevalence was around 10 percent.
Of 36 million people infected with HIV around the world, 26 million live
in Africa. Globally, the virus has killed 23 million people, including
17 million in sub-Saharan Africa.
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