[Ip-health] VoA-Medical Group Says AIDS Drugs Help Survival Rate in Developing Countries

[Rachel COHEN]

VOICE OF AMERICA

Medical Group Says AIDS Drugs Help Survival Rate in Developing Countries
Nancy-Amelia Collins
Bangkok 12 Jul 2004, 15:38 UTC


The aid group, Doctors Without Borders (known by its French name, Medecins
sans Frontieres, or MSF) says anti-retroviral drugs can dramatically
increase survival rates for people with HIV-AIDS in developing countries.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) says that AIDS patients in developing
countries who receive anti-retroviral drugs have an 85 percent chance of
surviving two years after the treatment starts.


Using generic drugs, anti-retroviral treatment costs around $200 a year.
But MSF says patients eventually develop resistance and need what is called
second-line drugs, which can cost about $5,000 a year.


Kris Torgeson, an MSF spokeswoman, said that prices for second-line drugs
must be cut or many people will die needlessly.


"There still is not enough being done to rapidly scale up access to
treatment for all of those who need it," she said.


At the International AIDS Conference in Bangkok, MSF warned on Monday that
a free trade agreement being negotiated between the United States and
Thailand could endanger low cost treatments. Thailand produces low-cost
generic anti-retroviral drugs, but the trade agreement could impose U.S.
patent laws, and make second-line drugs more expensive. United States
pharmaceutical companies say it is expensive to develop the drugs and they
must recover their costs.


MSF also says pharmaceutical companies have not developed treatments for
children with HIV-AIDS. Ms. Torgeson added that children take drugs
formulated for adults and that there are no clear guidelines for treating
children.


"Right now, children are basically being treated as if they are small
adults because, there's a very small market for pharmaceutical companies to
develop drugs specifically for children," she explained.


MSF treats 13,000 patients in 25 countries, and says more needs to be done
to prevent HIV transmission from mother to child. About 700,000 children
are infected each year during birth and through breast-feeding.


---
Rachel M. Cohen
U.S. Director, Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines
Doctors Without Borders/M=E9decins Sans Fronti=E8res (MSF)
333 Seventh Avenue, 2nd Floor * New York, NY * 10001-5004 * USA
Tel: +1-212-655-3762
Mobile: +1-917-331-9077
Fax: +1-212-679-7016
E-mail: rachel.cohen@newyork.msf.org

http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/
http://www.accessmed-msf.org/