19th July, 2010
We risk reversing all gains made, warns AMREF
At the International AIDS Society Conference in Vienna this week, AMREF asks for a removal of all barriers to universal access to treatment of HIV if the momentum gained in interventions to reduce infection in sub-Saharan Africa is to be maintained.
AMREF promotes a strong message to governments and donors to meet their funding obligations for treatment, care and support of people living with HIV and to ensure universal treatment.The theme of the conference is ‘Rights Here, Right Now’, which the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said was a call to the world to recognise and honour the human rights of people living with HIV, and especially those most marginalised and stigmatised, by ensuring that they have access to the prevention, treatment, care and support that they need to survive. AMREF’s rallying call 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.
AMREF Director General Dr Teguest Guerma, who is leading a team from AMREF at the conference, 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. We need innovative insurance schemes to make treatment affordable. We 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."
AMREF advocates that HIV/AIDS treatment should form part of a comprehensive prevention programme. "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.
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