E-DRUG: open letter to WHO and UNAIDS re contrimoxazole
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[copied from INTAIDS message number [497] with thanks; WB]
Open letter of People With HIV & AIDS to the Directors of WHO and UNAIDS
We, people living with HIV & AIDS, militants in organisations for the
defence of the dignity and right to health of all those infected, demand
from the leaders of concerned international organisations that they carry
out the following request with urgency, the fullest commitment and adequate
resources.
Today, in developing countries, the only treatments which would allow us to
live with the virus, antiretrovirals are inaccessible for reasons above all
related to pricing. We are fighting for the reduction of these prices, and
for access programmes to be set up in our countries. This is an essential
fight, and we've only just started.
But parallel to this fight is another, at first glance easier, which we call
on to you to tackle face to face : there exists an antibiotic treatment
which can help us against many opportunistic infections : cotrimoxazole
(perhaps better-known under the brand-name Bactrim).
This treatment, the use of which is widespread across the world to cure all
sorts of infections, is not sufficiently prescribed to people with AIDS.
Physicians are unaware of its preventive interest against opportunistic
infections, and governments are still hesitating to systematise its
dispensation to all people living with HIV, even through it has long been
proved highly efficacious against a wide range of bacterial infections
(especially pneumocci and salmonella) as well as parasitic infections
(especially toxoplasmosis and isosporiasis).
For over 10 years, African countries have waited for research to confirm its
efficacy on this continent, while in the North its prescription had become
routine. The results of this research have concluded, in May 1999 in Ivory
Coast, to the interest of cotrimoxazole as early prophylaxis. In Harare a
few months ago, an international expert consultation - organised under the
guidance of WHO and UNAIDS - concluded unanimously on the urgency of wide
and immediate prescription of this treatment.
Still, concrete headway is not arriving. These recommendations have not been
properly publicised, and we are finding it worrisome that no communication
plan worth the name is being set by relevant international organisations -
before, during and after the International Conference on AIDS and STDs which
will take place in July in South Africa. Yet more expert consultations is
what is being prepared at tremendous cost and waste of public resources,
even though there have been no new data since Harare and all aspects have
been thoroughly discussed, arriving at consensual working conclusions.
Something concrete needs to be done, NOW, fifteen years late and before the
month of July.
Our brothers and sisters who are infected and left in ignorance, our field
physicians and nurses, all must be informed. Our governments must be
persuaded and mobilised. We need you, WHO and UNAIDS, starting today, to
carry this simple and essential message to international fora and media :
effective prevention of opportunistic infections by cotrimoxazole is
possible, necessary, and urgent.
We will take stock of your response, Mrs Bruntland, Mr Piot, in Durban, as
Directors respectively of WHO and UNAIDS, and before the thousands of actors
of the fight against AIDS who are due to attend. This would be a mere first
step, belated and insufficient but much welcome, towards a true response to
this disease which is decimating our continent.
Signed by 23 signatories from 17 countries:
Zambian Network of People with HIV - Zambie
Lusaka - Winston Zulu
00 260 97 796 810 -napnzp@zamnet.zm
National Guidance and Empowerment Network - Uganda
Kampala - Milly Katana
00 256 41 259481 / 222 551- jcrc@mukla.gn.apc.org
WOFAK (Women Fighting Aids in Kenya) - Kenya
Dorothy O. Onyango, Dorothy A. Odhiambo, Eunice A. Odongo, Ludfine A. Opudo,
Marita Barasa
Tel: (254 2) 797 960, Fax: (254 2) 331 897 - wofak@iconnect.co.ke
Zimbabwean Network of People with HIV - Zimbabwe
Harare - Chipo Mbanje - Programme Officer SFA
00 263 4 702 226 or 091 356 380/50 - chipom@aafrica.org.zw
Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ) - Zimbabwe
Harare - Keith, Romeo, Simba, Peter, and the rest
Tel int+263-4 741736 Fax: int +263-4 778165 - galz@samara.co.zw
The Centre - Zimbabwe
Harare - Lynde Francis
00 263 4 732 966 - centre@internet.co.zw
Democracy Radio - South Africa
Brett Davidson
brett@idasact.org.za
Treatment Action Campaign - South Africa
Zackie Achmat
00 27 31 464 7367 / 00 83 467 11 52 - zackie@pixie.co.za
Agua Buena Human Rights - Costa Rica
Richard Stern - San Jos�
Tel 506-234-2411 - rastern@sol.racsa.co.cr
Global Network of People With HIV - International Organisation
Stu Flavell
gnp@xs4all.nl
ACT UP-Philadelphia - USA
Asia Russel - Philadelphia
00 1 215 731 1844 - asia@critpath.org
Global Health Council (International Organisation) - USA
Ron MacInnis Director, Global AIDS Program
2 028 335 900 - AIDS@globalhealthcouncil.org
Positives For Positives - USA
State of Wyoming
pos4pos@wyoming.com
Consumer Advocacy & Activism - Malawi
Chatinkha C. Nkhoma
chatinkha@erols.com
Milly Katana
Project Manager
National Guidance and Empowerment Network of PHA in Uganda
Rubaramira Ruranga
National Coordinator
National Guidance and Empowerment Network of PHA in Uganda
ALCS - Maroc
Casablanca - Hakima Himmich
mobile : 00 212 1 141 545 - alcs@casanet.net.ma
Association African Solidarit� - Burkina Faso
Ouagadougou - Issoufou Ouedraogo
Tel:(226) 31 01 47 Tel Home: (226) 30 43 96 Fax:(226) 31 87 62 -
aas@fasonet.bf
Association REVS+ Bobo Dioulasso - Burkina Faso
Martine Somda , Sawadogo mamadou, some alexandre, kafando christine,
compaore bibata, zerbo dominique, hien fran�oise
00 226 98 10 20 / 97 00 93 - revs@fasonet.bf
Association Action Espoir Vie - B�nin
Cotonou
- aev@syfed.bj.refer.org
AFSU (Association des Fr�res et S urs Unies) - Cameroun
Yaound� - Tita Isaac
00 237 20 92 24 / 22 67 19 - afsucameroun@yahoo.fr
Association Espoir Vie Togo - Togo
Lom� - Marguerite Yawo Gouna
00 228 22 62 43/ 22 52 01 - ygouna@tg.refer.org
Ensemble Contre le Sida - France
Paris - Eric Fleutelot
00 33 1 53 26 45 55/81 - e.fleutelot@sidaction.org
ACT UP-Paris - France
Paris - Emmanuelle Cosse
00 33 660 870 017 - emma@samizdat.net
Christophe Martet, journaliste,
Tetu, Paris, France
Centre Hospitalier et Universitaire de Bouak� - R�publique de C�te-d'Ivoire
Chef du service H�pital du jour pour les malades du Sida
Docteur Joseph Essombo
ejorsb@africaonline.co.ci
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