Download Report - UNDP Asia-Pacific Regional Centre - United ...

Human Rights and HIV/AIDSSource: WHO/ITAC, 2002Table 4.3Coverage of anti-retroviral treatment in developing countries, December 2002(Adults by region)Region Number of people Estimated Coverageon ART need (%)Sub-Saharan Africa 50,000 4,100,000 1Asia 43,000 1,000,000 4North Africa, West Asia 3,000 7,000 29Eastern Europe, Central Asia 7,000 80,000 9Latin America, Caribbean 196,000 370,000 53All regions 300,000 5,500,000 5This school argues that the efforts to stepup access to treatment may dilute thefocus on HIV prevention while the highcosts of HAART may divert scarce resourcesaway from HIV prevention efforts andother competing require-ments within thehealth sector. In other words, HIVprevention and health priorities such asgastro-enteritis, tuberculosis, malaria,malnutrition, and population control maymerit greater consideration than themedication requirements of a smaller,albeit vocal, special ‘interest group’ ofPLWHA and their advocates.greatly strengthened by mainstreamingHIV/AIDS. Therefore, there is nounavoidable trade-off between theprovision of HAART and other healthpriorities.The second argument of the humancapital school is that HAART involvesrather complex regimens of expensivedrugs that have serious side effects.HAART, therefore, calls for additionalinvestments in training medicalpersonnel in the long term treatment,monitoring and care of PLWHA.However, if public health action on HIV—especially the care and support regime—is perceived as being an example for otherhealth challenges, then it would no longerbe viable to see HIV/AIDS as a specialinterest of a few people. Instead, theapproaches and lessons of theHIV/AIDS strategy would help augmentthe capabilities of the existing publichealth system at all levels. Indeed, itwould be essential to strengthen theprimary health centres and local hospitalseven to meet the challenge of HIV at itspresent scale in South Asia, in addition toongoing work of the NGOs, voluntarycounselling and testing centres etc.In other words, the agenda for healthsector reforms in South Asia would beBox 4.11International TreatmentAccess CoalitionOn 12 December 2002, an International Treatment AccessCoalition (ITAC) of more than 50 partners was formed to overcomethe challenges of expanding access to ARV drugs. The partnersincluded NGOs, donors and governments, PLWHAs and theiradvocates, the private sector, academic and research institutionsand international organisations. ITAC hopes to promote the efficientsharing of information and technical data about what works insuccessful programmes, assist the establishment of reliable drugprocurement systems, and training healthcare workers. The groupalso aims to galvanise and coordinate donor action and providemuch-needed technical assistance to national HIV treatmentprogrammes. It will be served by a small secretariat at WHO’sHeadquarters in Geneva.Source: ITAC(http://www.itacoalition.org/content.html)Regional Human Development ReportHIV/AIDS and Development in South Asia 2003 95