The number of AIDS patients receiving treatment in poor and developing countries has tripled in two years, reaching over 1.3 million by the end of 2005.
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| A boy caring for his mother with AIDS in Kenya (Photo: TTO) |
This is the report from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). However, this number still falls significantly short of the target.
According to the report, the Sub-Saharan region of Africa is the hardest hit by the AIDS epidemic, with 9 out of 10 children living with HIV/AIDS awaiting treatment in Africa. Although the number of HIV/AIDS patients receiving treatment has increased, the estimated 3 to 6.5 million patients in low- and middle-income countries who urgently need treatment remains unattained.
The fight against the AIDS epidemic in poor countries is limited to prevention and treatment, which costs thousands of USD per patient per year, still out of reach for many nations. From 2003 to 2005, global spending on combating this epidemic rose from $4.7 billion to $8.3 billion.
However, during the same period, less than 10% of pregnant women with HIV received treatment during and prior to pregnancy. As a consequence, about 1,800 infants are born with HIV each day, and each year over 570,000 children aged 15 and under die from AIDS, the majority of whom are infected by their mothers.
According to UNAIDS, the world needs at least $22 billion per year from now until 2008 to fund prevention, treatment, and care programs for HIV/AIDS patients in these countries.
In another development, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States announced that two AIDS treatment drugs are set to be tested on humans. If these preventive drugs, tenofovir and emtricitabine, prove effective in humans similar to their trials on primates, they will be prescribed to individuals at high risk of HIV/AIDS infection (healthcare workers and children with HIV-positive mothers).
Accordingly, taking the medication daily or once a week before the virus can enter the body may prevent infection.
DUC TRUONG
