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Αρχική σελίδα / Νέα / MSF giving life to AIDS patients - 1st December, World AIDS Day
AIDS is killing off the productive population of the developing world. Of the 38 million people worldwide that are HIV positive, 95% live in developing countries; of these most are young working-age adults and children. With the young and productive populations contacting the virus, becoming sick and dying, these countries fall into a perpetual cycle of poverty and underdevelopment. The people that are being infected and dying are those that work, take care of the children, teach and care for the sick. Once they die, there is no one to take their place.
A painful example is Zambia, where 20% of the population aged 15-49 has been infected with the HIV virus. The average mortality rate has fallen to the age of 37. AIDS is wiping out a whole generation.
But this can be changed
Antiretrovirals, or ARVs for short, help keep the virus to a low level in the body and thus, not only extend the life expectancy of the patients, but also allows them to lead a normal life. But up until recently, ARVs were accessible only to patients from wealthy western countries because they cost over 10,000 dollars a year for each patient.
Recently they allowed the production of ARVs in cheap generic form. It now only costs 200 dollars a year for each patient to have these life-saving drugs.
Medecins Sans Frontieres wants to get these ARVs out to the people that need them in the developing countries. ARVs can give life to a whole generation, one that will otherwise die without access to these drugs.
The benefits of treatment are clear. Most patients are thriving: their immune systems become stronger, they gain weight and are able to live fuller and longer lives.
Giving Life
In 2003 it is estimated that 3 million people died because of AIDS. Of these, 500,000 were children.
Medecins Sans Frontieres, the world's largest voluntary medical organization, wishes to change this. MSF started giving out ARVs in 2000 in Thailand and South Africa. By 2003, they were administering the drugs to 9,000 patients in 22 countries.
Today, they are using ARVs and giving life to over 23,000 people in 27 countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, China, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Guinea, Honduras, Indonesia, Kenya, Laos, Malawi, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nigeria, Peru, Rwanda, South Africa, Thailand, Uganda, Ukraine, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
MSF-Greece (Giatroi Horis Synora), following MSF International, wishes to reach even more AIDS patients and give them life.
ARVs use in MSF missions
MSF is administering Antiretroviral therapy in Zambia, and will soon (in the coming weeks) be starting a program in Malawi . Greek doctors will be working in the field in these countries to ensure that HIV patients can live longer and more productively.
MSF-Gr is the only Greek NGO supporting the use of ARVs in the field and aiming at expanding this MSF initiative to reach more AIDS patients in need.
Free of Charge
MSF provides ARVs free of charge. MSF believes that treatment has to be free because many of the patients who desperately need these life-saving drugs would not be able to get them otherwise. Providing the treatment free it also ensures that patients will continue coming to get their dose, which is vital in keeping them healthy.
Two pills a day
One of the reasons why the ARVs have been so successful is because MSF has been able to "simplify" the treatment process. Patients only need to take one pill, twice a day, in order to start getting healthy. MSF apart from introducing these fixed-dose combination tablets, has introduced other procedures to ensure the success of the program:
As of May 2004, 76% of new patients within MSF projects were starting treatment on the one-pill-twice-a-day regimen. The most frequently used FDC is a triple combination of lamivudine, Stavudine and Nevirapine, usually sourced from Indian generic manufacturers.
The quality, efficacy and safety of these fixed-dose combinations has been approved by the World Health Organization, and in each country they have been registered for use by the relevant drug regulatory authorities. MSF believes that the WHO's prequalification project, which certifies the quality of ARVs, should be expanded and strengthened, in order to increase the support it can offer to countries' authorities.
MSF AIDS Programs
MSF AIDS programs are run in diverse settings ranging from hospitals in the capitals to city slums in remote rural areas and areas hit by armed conflicts. The aim of these programs is to provide a comprehensive package of care to patients. Projects include prevention efforts (health education, prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, condom distribution), voluntary counselling and testing, nutritional and psychosocial support, treatment and prophylaxis of opportunistic infections, and ARV treatment.
In most MSF AIDS programs, eligibility for ARV therapy follows WHO guidelines. In many projects, the standard way of determining the extent of a patient's infection, measurement of CD4 cells, is not available; some clinical stage III and IV patients are initiated based on clinical signs alone.
The profile of patients in places where MSF works is significantly different from those in wealthier countries. More than half of all patients treated within MSF programs are women of childbearing age, and there are high numbers of children in need of ARV treatment. Patients tend to be in very advanced stages of HIV/AIDS before they seek treatment and are often afflicted with one or more complex co-infections, such as TB.
Brighter Future
With the work that MSF is doing, not only is the HIV patient getting a new breath of life, but it has also helped change social attitudes around the HIV positive person. Many of the communities in which MSF works, have witnessed and participated in radical positive changes once treatment has become available: reduced stigma, increased openness about HIV, and renewed hope.
Additionally, MSF is working strongly in international campaigns in order to ensure the affordability of these drugs. This involves stimulating generic competition, implementing equity pricing (pricing branded products at affordable levels to developing countries), using local production when possible, and developing regional and international procurement and distribution systems.
It is also vital that governments begin to provide access to treatment on a regional or national level. They are the ones that must take up the work that MSF has begun and bring life to all their affected people.
