HIV Treatment Failing in Africa?
October 16th, 2007
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With huge investments by private donors including The Bill and Milinda Gztes Foundation, there has been renewed focus on anti-retroviral treatment for HIV+ patients in Africa. However, a new study reports that the retention rate for such treatment is low.
They found that two years on from the commencement of treatment, only 61.6% of all patients were still receiving medication.
The researchers say there are many reasons for the fall-out rate.
Many patients were too late in taking up ARVs in the first place and died within a few months of commencing treatment.
Other patients dropped out because of problems with accessing the drugs - they may live some distance, for example, from the clinic which provided the medication.
There was also evidence, the researchers say, of patients discontinuing treatment because of the cost of the drugs in those cases where patients were charged for their ARVs.
Boston University’s Dr Christopher Gill says in many cases, taking the ARVs may take a back seat to more pressing daily needs.
“Receiving the drug itself is a major investment of a patient’s time, so if you live 8 km from the nearest clinic and have to go there once a month and you don’t have a ready means of transport it’s a huge investment of your own time,” he told the BBC.[link]
The original study is available here.
While this demands a longer comment, I will restrict my self to saying that I am not a great fan of focusing on few specific diseases while ignoring the public health system. I intend to examine this question in the Indian context soon.
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3 Responses to “HIV Treatment Failing in Africa?”
HIV Treatment Failing in Africa? by medTRIALS.info October 16th, 2007 at 4:57 pm #
[...] post by Rohit delivered by Medtrials and [...]
shark October 17th, 2007 at 1:50 am #
i think the problem is just the commercement of treatment itself. yes, as a friend on positivesingles.com once said, it’s the huge cost of medicine and therapy scare the patients, esp. in areas like Africa.
i also consider the key point is money , that is people there cannot afford even to make themselves healthy, so i think the UN and other countries should help.
Rohit October 17th, 2007 at 2:26 pm #
Shark,
Of course. No doubt that people in Africa need help. But the important question is shape of the help. Should it be focusing on select diseases or money should go in fixing the public health system.