[Ip-health] Toronto Sun: Affordable drugs key to AIDS struggle

[Sheila.SHETTLE@geneva.msf.org]

TORONTO SUN=0D
Affordable drugs key to AIDS struggle=0D
By KEVIN CONNOR=0D
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When Ibrahium Umoru was diagnosed with HIV in 2001 he sold his home and car=
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in Nigeria to pay for his medication.=0D
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By 2003, he was broke and dying because he couldn=E2=80=99t afford the drug=
s, but=0D
then Doctors Without Borders stepped in.=0D
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=E2=80=9CThey took over my treatment and my life is coming back with the ne=
w drugs.=0D
My old drugs needed refrigeration and electricity is hard to come by,=E2=80=
=9D=0D
Umoru said today in Toronto at the 16th International AIDS Conference.=0D
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=E2=80=9CMy new drug doesn=E2=80=99t need refrigeration. We need to get the=
se drugs to=0D
where they are needed. Only a few people get them.=E2=80=9D=0D
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People with HIV can develop a resistance to their drugs and the newest=0D
drugs on the market are still too expensive, said Nathan Ford, of South=0D
Africa, an adviser to Access to Essential Medications Campaign Thailand.=0D
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=E2=80=9CMore and more patients will have to switch to the new, expensive d=
rugs and=0D
I am exhausted and frustrated fighting with drug companies to get=0D
affordable drugs,=E2=80=9D Ford said.=0D
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For more of this story, and full coverage of Monday's events at the=0D
International AIDS conference, read Tuesday's Toronto Sun or torontosun.com=
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+++++++++++++++++++++=0D
at Toronto AIDS Conference:  +1.416.455.7916=0D
+++++++++++++++++++++=0D
Sheila Shettle=0D
Communications Officer=0D
M=C3=A9decins Sans Fronti=C3=A8res=0D
Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines=0D
Rue de Lausanne 78=0D
1211 Geneva=0D
Switzerland=0D
+ 41.22.849.8403=0D
sheila.shettle@geneva.msf.org=0D
www.accessmed-msf.org=0D
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