More ART puts strain on funding
NAIROBI, (PLUSNEWS) – Global funding shortfalls for fighting AIDS could make
it impossible for developing countries to implement new World Health
Organization treatment guidelines, activists said. The WHO released new
guidelines on antiretroviral therapy (ART) in December 2009, raising the CD4
count – a measure of immune strength – at which HIV-positive people should start
ART from 200 to 350. Research has shown that starting ART earlier reduces the
rate of death and opportunistic disease. ?WHO?s new recommendations are
excellent in theory, but they did not give us a practical way of implementing
the guidelines – already we have shortages of drugs in trying to put people with
CD4s below 200 on treatment,? said James Kamau, coordinator of the Kenya
Treatment Access Movement. ?How will we now put so many more people on ARVs? The
increased number of people on drugs means not just more drugs, but more labs,
more health centres and health workers, more general care – the expense is
enormous.? An estimated four million people around the world are currently on
ART – a 10-fold increase since 2003, when the drugs became widely available –
but this figure still represents just over one-third of the people who need the
medication. ?If WHO?s new recommendations are not implemented, the international
community risks subsidising less expensive yet sub-standard care for developing
countries,? said Sharonann Lynch, MSF?s HIV/AIDS policy advisor, in a press
release.