20th July, 2010
With the shortage of antiretroviral drugs in Africa, even those on treatment may not get it in the future
AMREF is asking for a removal of all barriers to universal access to treatment of HIV, including shortage of funds for treatment and complicated drug combinations, if the momentum gained in interventions to reduce infection in sub-Saharan Africa is to be maintained.
AMREF Director General Dr Teguest Guerma, who is leading a team from AMREF at the 2010 International AIDS Conference that opened today in Vienna, Austria, says there are many people whose hopes of living a full life have been raised by the availability of antiretroviral therapy, and we must not let them down.
“Let us make sure they get the treatment. The cost of drugs is high - it must be reduced. Anti-retroviral therapy is a life-long treatment; if it is cheaper, it can be made available for everyone who is infected. In addition, we need innovative insurance schemes to make treatment affordable. We also need to have a simpler standardised drug, instead of the cocktail that is currently being taken. It has been done with TB, and there is no reason why it cannot be done with HIV.”
The global health crisis has affected funding for AMREF’s activities, acknowledged Dr Guerma, but the organisation is considering new ways of raising money, including from individuals and Corporates in Africa, with whom AMREF has not engaged much so far. This will ensure that the organisation is able to continue its work with the most vulnerable communities, including supporting treatment and care for people living with HIV in these communities.
This is important, she said, because AMREF works in places where nobody else goes – like Turkana District in northern Kenya, South Omo in Ethiopia, and Tali in Southern Sudan. “AMREF is special because we work with the most isolated and poorest people, from urban slums to nomadic communities. We build the organisational capacity of grassroots civil society organisations, such as faith-based and community-based organisations, ensuring that the work they do is effective by giving them technical skills in financial management, monitoring and evaluation, and accountability.”
AMREF’s HIV prevention, treatment and care interventions integrate maternal health, as well as reproductive health services and education for young people, said Dr Guerma. AMREF’s rallying call at the conference is ‘Stand Up for African Mothers; Rights Here, Right Now’, which incorporates AMREF’s campaign to improve the health of African mothers over the next five years and the theme of this year’s International AIDS Conference, ‘Rights Here, Right Now’.
“Africa has made minimal progress towards attaining the Millennium Development Goals to reduce maternal and child deaths. We must ensure that we put enough resources into improving the health of women and girls. I hope that a substantial amount of the US$ 5 billion pledged by the G8 in Muskoka for maternal health will be used in an integrated approach that includes prevention and treatment of HIV, comprising prevention of mother to child transmission, education, care and support.
Dr Guerma emphasised the importance of incorporating treatment as part of comprehensive prevention programmes. Prevention and treatment are two sides of the same coin. We need a comprehensive prevention package that includes treatment, as this has been proven to have a huge impact on reduction of new infections,” said Dr Guerma.
HIV prevalence in Kenya, for example, has fallen to 6 per cent in 2008, down from 10 per cent in the 1990s because of a combination of behaviour change and treatment, which have greatly reduced HIV transmission. But she lamented the fact that not everyone who needs the life-saving ARVs is using them, mostly because they are not available. She said that less than 40 per cent of those who need the drugs can get them from existing programmes.
Stigma and discrimination are an important barrier to accessing treatment and care too, Dr Guerma observed. “Many people fear the reaction of society to infection, so they do not test to find out their status. This means that they do not get access to treatment, even when they need it. We have made a lot of progress in reducing stigma and discrimination, but we still have a long way to go. We must find ways to eliminate this barrier, and all the others that stand in the way of universal treatment. We must keep the hope alive.”
AMREF is presenting nine technical posters at the conference. The team includes staff from Tanzania, South Africa, Kenya and AMREF Headquarters in Nairobi. In addition, AMREF has set up an exhibition at the conference, which continues to attract a steady flow of visitors on the first day of the conference, many of whom were keen to learn about the organisation’s work and to pursue areas of potential partnership.
