South African generic AIDS drug manufacturer, Aspen Pharmacare, has become the first African firm to win approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its production plant. The FDA conducted a pre-operational review and close inspection to ascertain good manufacturing practice at Aspen's Port Elizabeth facility in September last year. As a result of this approval, funds from the US President's Emergency Plans for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) can be used to purchase Aspen-manufactured drugs for use in countries where the local drug regulatory agency has approved them.
Equity and HIV/AIDS
Malawi aims to triple ARV treatment
Malawi aims to more than triple the number of HIV-positive people in the country who are receiving antiretroviral drugs at no cost by July with the help of a $14 million grant from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, a Malawian health official said on Monday, AFP/Independent Online reports. Malawi in May 2004 began a five-year, $196 million nationwide program to provide antiretroviral drugs to HIV-positive people at no cost.
rationing antiretroviral therapy for HIV/AIDS in Africa
As the world intensifies its fight against the global AIDS epidemic, African countries have begun to develop largescale prevention and treatment programmes. A combination of funds from African governments and international donors are paying for drugs, diagnostics, clinic and laboratory infrastructure, and medical personnel. Although these funds, which reach into the billions of dollars, will pay for antiretroviral therapy for many thousands of HIV-positive Africans, there is almost no chance that African countries will have the human, infrastructural, or financial resources to treat everyone who is in need, at least in the early years.
Will 2005 be a year of action on HIV/AIDS?
Commentators are beginning to raise other fundamental questions about the Tsunami disaster, reports the latest edition of the Africa Focus Bulletin. "Most significantly, can the response to the tsunami be carried over to even more devastating crises that are less photogenic, such as AIDS, global health, conflict, and poverty? Or will the effect be to reduce resources for implementing programs that have not been scaled up for lack of political will and resources? " Despite significant expansion of programs in the last two years, only four percent of the estimated 3.8 million people in need of such treatment in Africa now have access. Global spending on HIV/AIDS in low and middle-income countries was estimated at $6.1 billion in 2004, with the need projected at $12 billion for 2005.
Aids epidemic update 2004
Joint United Nations Programme on HIV
This joint UNAIDS/WHO report outlines the most recent trends in the global AIDS epidemic. Women are increasingly affected by HIV and make up nearly half of the 37.2 million living with HIV world wide. In sub-Saharan Africa, almost 60 percent of adults living with HIV are women. The report identifies Southern Africa as the worst-hit region with HIV prevalence rates surpassing 25 percent. Although global AIDS spending has tripled since 2001 and access to services has improved significantly, the epidemic is still spreading.
AIDS Groups Worried About Backlash Against Nevirapine
Some HIV/AIDS treatment groups have expressed "alarm" about a possible backlash against the use of the antiretroviral drug nevirapine among pregnant women to reduce the risk of mother-to-child HIV transmission because of a recent series of Associated Press articles concerning clinical trials of the drug, the New York Times reports. The articles concerned NIH's research on the use of nevirapine in single doses among HIV-positive pregnant women in Uganda to determine the drug's ability to reduce the risk of vertical HIV transmission.
Barriers to care of HIV/AIDS patients in developing countries
This British Medical Journal article examines the challenges faced in the World Health Organization's (WHO) '3 by 5' initiative, which aims to deliver anti-retrovirals (ARVs) to 3 million people by 2005. It highlights that the focus on delivering ARVs distracts resources and attention from a broader model of health care. They argue that the initiative must develop a chronic disease model of care through a strengthened public health infrastructure. The authors also point out the exclusionary power of stigma and outline the need for training programmes for health care workers on medical ethics and human rights.
European Parliament resolution on World AIDS Day
"The European Parliament ...Calls on the EU to continue to prioritise sexual and reproductive health issues through funding programmes on family planning, and in particular to influence sexual behaviour through risk-reduction strategies, to educate young people, and especially girls and young women, about STIs and HIV, and to encourage condom usage in combination with other contraceptive methods and combat any misinformation spread on the effectiveness of condoms..."
Further details: /newsletter/id/30736
Malawi NGO breaks silence around HIV/AIDS
In a small village in Kaswela in Karonga district in the northern region of Malawi, 35-year-old Lucy Banda has been critically ill for a year, and her neighbours suspect she is HIV-positive. Despite numerous visits to the hospital, Banda shows no signs of improvement and spends most of her time lying on her mat, unable to talk or eat properly. A community based NGO in the district, Chipulikano Orphan Care (COC), is trying to address the problem of caring for orphans and vulnerable children, as well as raising awareness about AIDS within families - traditionally a taboo subject.
SA NGO launches countrywide monitoring of ARV rollout
A new project by the South African NGO, Health Systems Trust (HST), will enable communities across the country to provide feedback on progress in the rollout of free anti-AIDS medication. HST, based in the east-coast city of Durban, is developing a monitoring and evaluation tool to screen communities' access to free antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, and will also provide technical assistance in lobbying provincial and national government. The national treatment programme has come under fire from activists over the slow pace of delivery and problems with the procurement of ARVs.