Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Fides Service) - According to Dr Vento, who works in the infectious disease department of Borgo Trento hospital in Verona «In the last 2-3 years the west has produced special treatment for HIV virus consisting of three antiretroviral drugs taken together. In Italy the treatment costs about 1,300,00 Euro a month. Considering that the treatment must not be interrupted we can imagine the cost of the therapy …”
“Certainly too expensive for Sub-Saharan countries”, says Camillian Brother Grigoletto, who assists HIV/AIDS patients in Burkina Faso: “a whole year’s income would not suffice for a month of treatment. On a continent where 290 million people live on less than a dollar a day, few can afford such an expense”.
According to UNAIDS and the World Health Organisation at the end of 2001, less than 4% of people in need of anti-retroviral drugs in low and middle income countries received them. And less than 10% of HIV positive people had access to palliative treatment or treatment for parallel infections.
The situation is no different in Latin America where for example in Peru, persons asking for state assistance must first show they are HIV/AIDS positive and this requires a test which costs 20 Soles (6 Euro). Once accepted for state assistance the patients receive only advice and the husband or wife or partner in sexual relations is obliged to take the 20 Soles test. The state assistance consists only in advice, no medicines. Treatment must be paid for by the patient. The government will not pay, neither will international Organisations and people are dying. The treatment costs about 500 dollars a month, more than the salary of a state doctor in Peru.
Botswana, a relatively prosperous country, is the first country in Africa which has decided to make antiretroviral drugs available to all citizens in need of them. Unfortunately so far only a small number of persons, about 2000, have received this treatment.
A group of companies has promised to supply antiretroviral drugs to employees and families. The initiative is praiseworthy but compared to the actual needs it is a drop in the ocean.
These figures reflect the stall in the international community which despite progress in recent years is unable to respond to the serious world situation.
Western therapy for HIV positive persons are the prerogative of a restricted elite, while others keep dying like flies.
“In every country, sooner or later, and however and wherever it begins, the epidemic will inevitably established its centre of gravity among the weakest and most marginalised sectors of society ” Brother Grigoletto concludes. (AP) (15/3/2004 Agenzia Fides; Righe:44; Parole:537)
