ABC: Which is why Zambia is letting its people die today so that thousands, maybe even millions, can be saved tomorrow.

[James Love <love@cptech.org>]

Quote from the ABC report on AIDS in Zambia:

	"Which is why Zambia is letting its people 
	die today so that thousands, maybe even 
	millions, can be saved tomorrow."


The ABC TV show was based upon these written reports by Jackie
Judd and - Richard Gizbert.  

http://abcnews.go.com/onair/CloserLook/wnt990708_aidsdrugs.html

The Actual on the air report was somewhat differnt than this.  
  Jamie


Drugs, Money and Lives

By Jackie Judd ABCNEWS.com

July 8 - Worldwide, 33 million people are infected with HIV or
have full-blown AIDS; 90 percent of them live in Africa, Asia and
Latin America.

But they may as well live on the moon when it comes to the drugs
that can control AIDS and keep them alive, because most simply
cannot afford the steep costs.

South Africa Seeks AIDS Drugs

Treating the more than 3 million AIDS-infected patients in
South Africa is a hopeless endeavor.

AZT and the newer AIDS drugs that prolong life cost between $500
and $1,000 a month. That's not only out of reach of the average
South African, but also of the government. Some patients are not
even told the drugs exist.

"[It's] frustrating," says Johannesburg General Hospital's Dr.
Dave Spencer. "I mean what do you say to young people in      
their 20s, 30s who have such a limited life expectancy?" Two
years ago, the South African government decided that, morally, it
had to do something. So it passed a law that would allow cheap,
generic versions of the drugs to be produced locally or imported
without the permission of the drug companies that make them.
"Certainly we in South Africa, and in the countries that cannot
afford these expensive drugs, say to the rest of the world, `Is
it all right that we cannot afford those drugs?'" says Dr. Eddie
Mhlanga, chief director of Maternal Child and Women's Health.
"`And therefore you are going to leave us to die?'"

Pharmaceutical Firms Fight Back
But the law never went into effect. Drug companies worldwide -
including those American firms that produce AIDS drugs - took
South Africa to court. They allege the law would violate patents,
send profits tumbling, and stifle expensive research.
The industry also argues - and many health professionals agree -
that cheaper drugs alone are not the answer. The pills need to be
taken in a systematic way. Patients need to be closely
supervised, something the South African medical system cannot
provide.

"Just giving people drugs without the proper treatment can create
drug-resistant strains of HIV," warns Tom Bombelles, a spokesman
for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association.
"It can make people sicker and not better and that threatens AIDS
patients everywhere around the world."

What happens next depends to some extent on the outcome of the
court case. Even if it leads to cheaper drugs, that would only be
a small piece of the puzzle.

Ultimately, the international community may have to intervene to
help Africa come to grips with this overwhelming AIDS crisis.

Glaxo Wellcome, the company that makes AZT, has cut drug prices
to some African countries. Bristol-Myers Squibb, the maker of
three AIDS drugs, is spending $100 million in Africa on
AIDS-related programs.

Modest perhaps. But listen to what one African health expert
says, quoting a local proverb. "How do you eat an elephant? One
bite at a time."


Zambia Takes the Opposite Approach

One of the few growth industries in Zambia is coffin making. AIDS
is punishing this country, which has 200 HIV-related deaths a
day.
   
And as in its neighbor South Africa, AIDS drugs are hard to get
here. And while the drugs might help, even prolong some lives,
they won't be made available anytime soon.

Because here, health officials agree with the drug companies -
that  anything less than a full course of treatment with the
right drugs could  result in the AIDS virus mutating into
something even more deadly.

"And if you give these drugs without the supportive services ...
we are talking about making all the types of HIV strains
resistant to the drug," says Forconsil Chanda, a community health
worker. "Is that what we want to happen?"

The government even raids unlicensed pharmacies to make sure no
one buys the drugs on the black market.

What they cannot stop, however, is someone like Winston Zulu, who
managed (for a while) to get the drugs from Europe. But later -
at the funeral for a friend, another victim of AIDS - he admitted
that his supply had run out before he had completed the required
course.

"The real risk," he says, "is that the next time I start, I may
become resistant to one or two [strains], or all of them."

And that is what the government here is trying to avoid: Someone
developing a resistant strain, passing it on and beginning a new
epidemic.

Which is why Zambia is letting its people die today so that
thousands, maybe even millions, can be saved tomorrow.

- Richard Gizbert, ABCNEWS


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-- 
James Love
Consumer Project on Technology
http://www.cptech.org
love@cptech.org
202.387.8030; fax 202.234.5176