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Ten times more in Africa get HIV drugs: report

Posted on: Wednesday, 16 August 2006, 15:27 CDT

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent

TORONTO (Reuters) - Ten times more people in Africa are getting life-saving HIV drugs than did three years ago, but most still get no treatment and the pandemic is spreading, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday.

More than a million people in sub-Saharan Africa now receive drugs that help many with the virus live normal lives, but globally only 24 percent of those who should be taking the drugs get them, the report said.

The findings suggest that a push has worked, at least partly, to get lifesaving drugs to the people who need them, WHO HIV/AIDS Director Dr. Kevin De Cock told the 16th International AIDS Conference.

"WHO estimated there were 1.65 million people on antiretroviral therapy in low and middle income settings, including over 1 million in Africa," De Cock told a news conference.

The AIDS virus infects nearly 39 million people globally, and has killed 25 million people since it was identified 25 years ago. Virtually all -- 95 percent -- of people infected with the virus live in the developing world.

There is no vaccine.

At the end of 2003, 100,000 people in Africa were being treated -- about 3 percent to 4 percent of those who needed the drugs to stay alive, De Cock said.

WHO, the United States, Medecins Sans Frontieres, former U.S. president Bill Clinton's foundation, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria and others have worked to drive down the costs of the drugs, provide generic versions for poor countries and get the drugs distributed.

PILLS

New formulations mean patients no longer have to take a dozen pills a day at precise times. Many are combined into single pills that can be taken once or twice a day.

"In low- and middle-income countries, just over 1.6 million persons were receiving antiretroviral therapy at the end of June 2006, a 24 percent increase over the 1.3 million who had access to the drugs in December 2005, and four times the 400,000 people receiving treatment in these countries in December 2003," De Cock said.

About 6.8 million people living in low- and middle-income countries need the drugs, which usually are not prescribed until the virus starts to affect the immune system significantly.

Children are especially poorly served, with pediatric formulations of HIV drugs still costing far more than adult versions.

"An estimated 800,000 children below the age of 15 require antiretroviral therapy, the vast majority in Africa," De Cock said. Only about 60,000 to 100,000 receive it.

He said fewer than 10 percent of HIV-infected pregnant women in low and middle income countries get the pills that can protect their newborns from the virus.

In contrast, WHO said, pediatric HIV disease has been virtually eliminated in the industrialized world.

(For more stories related to the Toronto international AIDS Conference, please go to http://today.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage.aspx?type=aids&src= GLOBALCOVERAGE_wire)

Source: REUTERS

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