A new free-trade deal between the EU and India may block access to generic antiretroviral drugs (ARV), the drugs needed to control HIV. Currently a years supply of generic ARV's cost $137 per person, per year. The spread of HIV is somewhat on the decline in Africa, and UNICEF has released a report stating that an HIV-free generation is possible if mother-to-child prevention drugs (which prevent the disease from being transmitted from a mother to her unborn child...obviously) are made accessible. So why are 1,000 babies a day in Africa still being born with HIV? With 22.5 million people in Africa living with HIV, this is an achievable goal. That's less then the populations then Canada, and we all get free healthcare, which is a hell of alot more social spending then $137 a year. But how to go about advocating for it? Canada has committed 1.7 billion towards maternal healthcare...to provide each person with ARV drugs for a year it would cost about 3014000000, which is 3 billion if I'm counting the zero's correctly, and using a calculator correctly. Only twice as much as Canada committed. And all together the G8 committed 7 million. So where is this money going.
Thoughts? Ideas?
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/kenyans-rally-against-eu-india-deal-on-aids-drugs
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/hiv-free-generation-achievable-unicef/
http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=91364
ReplyDeleteSwaziland Army has seen a decrease in the spread of AIDS over the past two years.