Access to medicines and treatment

Access to medicines and treatment features

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  Barriers to care: immigration removal centres and HIV

  Evidence has shown that a series of failings in immigration removal centres (IRCs) has compromised the continuity of care for people with HIV. Guest writer Daniel Lombard investigates. ...

  From:HIV treatment update

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  Access to HIV services can be increased by task shifting — but only with support and encouragement

  Several studies presented at the 5th South African AIDS Conference provided reassuring evidence that many health services, including the initiation and management of antiretoviral therapy (ART), can be...

  From:HIV & AIDS treatment in practice

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  What will it take to put millions more South Africans onto antiretroviral therapy?

  “The rapid expansion of antiretroviral therapy (ART) programmes within a limited budget will require innovative and cost-effective approaches to service delivery,” Professor Yunus Moosa of the University of...

  From:HIV & AIDS treatment in practice

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  HIV - the recession bites

  On 15th September, a man dressed as a bear was being tugged around Red Square in Moscow on a leash by three blonde ‘naughty nurses’. Promoting a...

  From:HIV treatment update

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  Scaling up HIV testing and counselling towards universal access: what works in resource-limited settings?

  This issue looks at the diverse possibilities and challenges for expanding HIV testing and counselling as well as policy and practice in resource-poor settings. ...

  From:HIV & AIDS treatment in practice

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  The consequences of fear

  How the myth of ‘health tourism’ is harming people with HIV, by Edwin J Bernard ...

  From:HIV treatment update

Access to medicines and treatment news from aidsmap

• Treatment as prevention is starting to work in parts of Africa

  A longitudinal study from KwaZulu Natal province in South Africa is the first study from the global south to relate an increase in the proportion of adults on HIV treatment to a fall in HIV incidence, the 19th Conference on ...

  18 March 2012 | Gus Cairns

• HIV treatment to be free for undocumented migrants and non-UK citizens

  The United Kingdom Department of Health has announced that it will soon make HIV treatment free for all who need it, regardless of citizenship or immigration status. While the change may be politically controversial, ministers are justifying it on ...

  28 February 2012 | Roger Pebody

• Cotrimoxazole prophylaxis reduces death rate by almost 60% in adults taking ART in low and middle-income countries

  Cotrimoxazole significantly reduces death among adults on ART in low and middle-income countries, according to a systematic review and meta-analysis published in the October online edition of the Bulletin of the World Health Organization. Pooled analysis of seven studies showed ...

  10 February 2012 | Carole Leach-Lemens

• Only four US state AIDS Drug Assistance Programmes cover all recommended cardiovascular risk-reduction therapies

  The provision of medication to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease by AIDS Drug Assistance Programs in the US is patchy and inconsistent, research published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine shows. Only four state AIDS Drug Assistance Programs ...

  31 August 2011 | Michael Carter

• Viral suppression reduces HIV risk despite more sex and 'condom fatigue' in patients starting treatment in Cameroon

  Concerns that HIV treatment may lead to increased rates of unprotected sex and a decline in condom use need to be considered in the context of the very substantial reduction in the risk of HIV transmission ...

  19 July 2011 | Gus Cairns

• Microbicide could be highly cost-effective in South African context

  A tenofovir-gel vaginal microbicide with the same efficacy as that seen in the CAPRISA 004 trial could be cost-effective in the context of the South African HIV epidemic even if only one-in-four sexually active women used it. If the gel ...

  17 July 2011 | Gus Cairns

• UNAIDS: Treat 15 million by 2015

  Global funding for AIDS needs to increase by one-third in the short term and by 20% in the longer term in order to achieve a radical reduction in new infections within a  decade, according to projections issued on June ...

  06 June 2011 | Keith Alcorn

• Further cuts in drug prices make tenofovir more affordable for low-income countries

  UNITAID, the international drug purchase fund, and the Clinton Health Access Initiative have announced further price reductions for key antiretroviral drug regimens, including a 14% reduction in the price of tenofovir-based triple combination therapy, to $159 a year. The reduced ...

  17 May 2011 | Keith Alcorn

• Progress on HIV treatment 'fragile', says MSF report

  Although major strides have been made in achieving access to antiretroviral treatment in low- and middle-income countries, progress is fragile and highly vulnerable to diminishing attention from donors, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) says in a new report published ahead ...

  12 May 2011 | Keith Alcorn

• Governments in southern Africa need to work harder at treatment scale-up, say activists

  Governments in southern Africa are still failing to honour their own commitments to scale up access to antiretroviral therapy despite the growing availability of international donor support to do so, according to a new report from ...

  11 December 2008 | Keith Alcorn

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Access to medicines and treatment news selected from other sources

• EU drugs regulator accused of being too cozy with Big Pharma - Euro Parliament refuses to approve EMA accounts

  By a large majority, the European Parliament has refused to sign off on the accounts of the EU agency responsible for making sure all medicines in Europe are safe and effective for its citizens to use, accusing the body of being too close to Big Pharma.

  5 hours ago | EU Observer

• UNITAID seeks innovative HIV, TB and malaria proposals

  UNITAID is inviting letters of intent (LOI), or short conceptual presentations of a proposed project, on the topic of improving access to key preventive, diagnostic and treatment commodities for HIV, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria through market-based approaches.  UNITAID works to negotiate low pricing for diagnostics and medication for AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in developing countries.

  12 hours ago | Science Speaks

• Zimbabwe: Nacs ARV Programme Not Free Entitlement for Those Affording

  The National Aids Council is worried about the growing gap in funding anti-retroviral drugs for people living with HIV.

  12 hours ago | AllAfrica

• Nigeria: 252,000 Persons to Get HIV Treatment for Five Years

  A new project run by FHI 360 is to help provide antiretroviral therapy for 252,000 people living with HIV/AIDS over the next five years, including completing ARV treatment for an estimated 41,220 pregnant women across Nigeria.

  13 hours ago | AllAfrica

• Bernie Sanders floats plan to make HIV drugs less costly

  Why do American patients pay tens of thousands of dollars each year for HIV drugs that cost just hundreds in Africa? Drugmakers wave their patent rights in developing countries as part of the President's Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief.

  15 May 2012 | Politico

• South Africa: Demand for Enquiry Into Drug Stockouts

  HIV activists and health workers are demanding an enquiry into continuing drug shortages, specifically a number of critical antiretrovirals that are central to government's treatment programme.

  11 May 2012 | AllAfrica

• Burma's Aids crisis: 'For a doctor, it's a horrible situation' – video

  Doctors in Burma describe the 'devastating gap' between people's need and their access to HIV and Aids treatment

  09 May 2012 | The Guardian

• Burma suffering from huge shortfall in HIV and Aids drugs, warn doctors

  MSF bemoans 'tragic' shortage of antiretroviral drugs as new drug-resistant tuberculosis strand causes further concernDoctors in Burma are calling for the "devastating gap" between people's need and access to treatment for HIV and Aids to be bridged. There are approximately 240,000 people with HIV in Burma, half of whom are in urgent need of life-saving antiretroviral treatment (ART), say doctors.

  09 May 2012 | The Guardian

• Antiretroviral shortage, so patients receive rationed medicines

  Gauteng has experienced a two month tenofovir (TDF) drought. TDF is one of the three drugs making up the standard treatment regimen given to people with HIV. Patients in Gauteng clinics are being given alternative older-generation antiretrovirals with more side-effects or rationed quantities of TDF with instructions to come back in a week for a refill.

  08 May 2012 | Groundup

• Dean Baker: Bernie Sanders Advocates a Free Market in AIDS Drugs

  There are more efficient mechanisms than patent monopolies to finance drug research. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is proposing one such mechanism, a prize system, be adopted to support research on AIDS drugs. This system, which has been proposed by Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, among others, would set up a $3 billion-a-year prize fund to buy out existing and future patents for AIDS drugs. The fund would compensate drug companies and researchers for their work.

  08 May 2012 | Huffington Post

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