Sometimes you have to look back to see how far you've come. An article in Bloomberg Businessweek -- -- 'AIDS Drugs Flow to the Third World' -- reports on new ways HIV/AIDS drugs are being manufactured and distributed in developing countries. It's a remarkable story.
In 2002, antiretroviral (ARV) medicine cost between $10,000 -- $15,000 per person a year. Today, in sub-Saharan Africa, the cost of that same medicine for each person, according to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, is around $150 a year, which breaks down to approximately 40 cents a day.
The fact that the medication is only 40 cents a day in developing countries is a stunning accomplishment. Thanks to organizations like the Clinton Foundation, PEPFAR and the Gates Foundation, all of which have worked tirelessly to lower the cost of ARVs, we now have made real progress towards getting the 33 million people (worldwide) who have HIV the medicine they need. In 2002 only 50,000 people in Africa were on ARVs. Today that number is four million. The world is a much better place because of these organizations and initiatives.
Medicine is only one piece of the puzzle. Successful treatment for HIV/AIDS requires education, care, support, food and nutrition, as well as medication. For example, with food and nutritional support, the ARV drugs taken to treat HIV/AIDS, are likely to be significantly more effective. And programs to provide treatment and care go hand in hand with prevention.
At (RED) one of our key objectives is to communicate the message that AIDS is preventable and treatable. We produced a documentary that aired on HBO, Channel 4 (in the UK) and on YouTube titled 'The Lazarus Effect' to show that if people with HIV/AIDS can get access to the medicine they need, they can regain their health and live a productive life. We also created a Public Service Ad campaign to support the film that highlighted the affordability of anti-retroviral medicine.
ARVs are just one aspect of this complex issue, so why did we concentrate on showcasing its affordability? To quote my friend and colleague, Michel Kazatchkine, Executive Director, the Global Fund: "It is true that many factors are important in ensuring that people are able to live healthy lives despite an HIV infection, including good nutrition and proper care. But the one that has revolutionized the fight against AIDS is the reduction in the price of antiretroviral drugs."
2010 is a critical year. There already have been a couple of breakthroughs. In March, the Global Fund, announced that the elimination of mother to child transmission of HIV/AIDS by 2015 is within reach. For the first time since the AIDS epidemic began in the 1980s, it is possible to imagine an AIDS-free generation. At last month's International AIDS Conference in Vienna, Salim Abdool Karim announced that a new vaginal gel reduced the risk of sexual transmission of HIV to women. This is an important breakthrough.
In September, the United Nations will meet to discuss the Millennium Development Goals. In October, the Global Fund seeks replenishment funding for its programs. We are, truly, at a turning point. It will take the collective power of governments, foundations, NGOs and the private sector to keep this global effort alive. (RED) and the global brands with whom we partner remain committed to amplifying the urgency of the effort and the moral power of its success.
You can watch 'The Lazarus Effect' on YouTube.
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I am really losing patience with this whole cure the world thing. We cannot help others until we help ourselves first! SIMPLE LAW OF NATURE. So with budgets being cut in the United States you can bet that one of the first casualties will be funding for various disability groups.
There is a MISCONCEPTION that once a person takes these drugs that they can live a NORMAL life. THIS IS AN UNTRUTH. After about 5-7 years on these drugs they begin to affect KEY functions of different organs in the body. Heart attacks, strokes, broken bones, neuropathy, neurologic decline, dementia, kidney toxicity (dialisys), liver toxicity (transplants) and a list as long as my arm. Lazarus effect only for a SHORT time.
Until we own up to the truth of this situation we won't fully solve it.
Oh but wait! Who is going to pay for the electoral campaign of your politicians if the Big Pharma does not make its bucks?
However, there is a huge movement in the medical community to do thousands of adult male circumcisions as part of the battle against AIDS in Africa. This is based upon very faulty studies. Utterly reprehensible and disgusting... The Gates foundation is helping to fund this sick operation!
There are still six African countries where men are *more* likely to be HIV+ if they've been circumcised: Cameroon, Ghana, Lesotho, Malawi, Rwanda, and Swaziland. Eg in Malawi, the HIV rate is 13.2% among circumcised men, but only 9.5% among intact men. In Rwanda, the HIV rate is 3.5% among circumcised men, but only 2.1% among intact men. If circumcision really worked against AIDS, this just wouldn't happen.
i hope i havnt offended practitioners of alternative medicine [ traditional medicine TM according to WHO still needed by 70% of th eworld's people] when i state that they are a minority who have been badly discriminated against and even hated on by doctors advising Clinton , gates, lewis and governments
i hope i am wrong about this
Unfortunately, I have to agree with you to an extent. While these systems are completely unsound from a medical perspective if people followed some of the common sense instructions of these systems, such as diet, they would do better in some cases. The suggestions are not harmful and for whatever reason people don't like to follow the advice of MDs. If people follow the instructions of these practitioners they will probably benefit, but for AIDS there is no way you should consider dropping HAART for some unproven herbal cure.
simply put known Herbal remedies need to be tested [ along with the above mentioned organic food [ nutritional supplementation ] etc [+ panchakarma and purification or detoxification protocols ] which is standard with doctors of Naturopathy and Ayur Veda etc ]
it will be proven that it was prejudice in the mainstream MD community e.g. the MDs advising Bill gates , against even testing and researching known herbal remedies [and vitamin C foundation protocol , Silver ion hydrosol etc ] in AIDS clinics or university studies which caused the infection to go viral [ pardon the pun]
e.g.Johns Hopkins U. found that the herb Larrea tridentata kills HIV in vitro
Spirulina Platensis kills HIV-1 and has been a traditonal food supplement in Africa
part of this is the destruction or marginalizing of local traditional knowledge for use of wildcrafted or cultured herbs and spices with medicinal properties which very importantly are an income to local farmers or peasants
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In sub-Saharan Africa the cost is now $150.00 a year according to the Global Fund but in Vancouver, Canada, where I live, the cost of my HIV/AIDS medications is much, much, higher. The actual price is on my HIV/AIDS medications. A one month supply, 120 tablets of Kaletra ( Lopinavir/Ritonavir ) cost $1887.52 and a one month supply, 30 tablets of Truvada is $2254.50. A year, this amounts to a much higher cost than the $10,000 - $15,000 a year reported in this article.
Why the difference in the cost of HIV/AIDS medications from one country to the next? If the costs can come down to $40.00 a day in developing countries; why the vast difference in the cost for my medications? Seems to me that the prices of HIV/AIDS medications are still way to high!
Bradford McIntyre, HIV+ since 1984
Vancouver, Canada
www.PositivelyPositive.ca
They then set price of said life-saving drugs at once cent below suicide rate.