HIV/AIDS

Micaela Serafini, MSF medical referent, discusses MSF’s efforts to treat HIV/AIDS in Swaziland.

MSF teams in Rakhine State are unable to provide care to many people in need due to ongoing ethnic tensions and threats against MSF staff.

Access to medicines is a crucial issue in private talks over the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the largest trade deal in U.S. history.

While gains made in the fight against HIV/AIDS in the past decade are encouraging, countries most affected by the pandemic continue to struggle to place enough people on treatment and implement the best science and strategies to fight the disease.

The board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria approved a new funding model, which avoided imposing caps for countries applying for funding. In November, the board will decide on further details pertaining to the new model. 

German pharmaceutical company Bayer is challenging an intellectual property decision in India that allowed more affordable generic drugs to be produced in the interests of public health.

Novartis AG goes to India's Supreme Court on Wednesday to seek patent protection for its blockbuster cancer drug Glivec in a case that could deliver far-reaching ramifications for multinational pharmaceutical companies operating in India....

Novartis's critics, including Médecins Sans Frontières [Doctors Without Borders], say that if the company prevails, it could set a legal precedent that allows pharmaceutical giants to patent a range of drugs in India that are now available from generic producers, including HIV medicines. That would demolish a thriving low-cost industry and lead to higher prices, not just in India, they say, but elsewhere in the developing world where India is a major exporter of drugs.

Once "more dead than alive," a woman living with HIV in Swaziland's remote Shiselweni region is now healthy and trying to help others who are where she once was.

A first-of-its-kind study released today at the International AIDS Conference by MSF maps progress across 23 countries on HIV treatment strategies, tools, and policies needed to increase treatment scale-up. 

As HIV treatment is scaled up in developing countries, the lack of access to viral load monitoring, a method of measuring the level of HIV in a patient that is routinely used in wealthy countries, must be addressed. 

Violence and deep communal divisions in Rakhine State are preventing people from receiving emergency medical treatment.

MSF helped organize a fashion show for women living with HIV to show what is possible when treatment is made available and to alert the public to the tragic lack of access to treatment in the country.

The World Health Organization recently issued new guidelines to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV. The recommendations include getting more women on treatment sooner and staying on it for life. The guidelines have the support of the medical aid group Doctors Without Borders, also known as MSF.

MSF calls on the stakeholders of the Global Fund to convene an emergency donor conference and to open a new early funding window to ensure that the Fund is fully functional in 2012.

A landmark patent ruling in India could possibly set a precedent that allows patients in developing countries far greater access to essential medicines.

Tens of thousands of people living with HIV and tuberculosis  in Myanmar are unable to access lifesaving antiretroviral therapy, a dire situation exacerbated by the recent cancellation of a new round of funding from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria.

A new MSF report warns that cancellation of global fund grants will have devastating effect in Myanmar.

While international attention focuses on Myanmar, a health crisis in the country looms large. An estimated 85,000 people infected with HIV in Myanmar are not receiving lifesaving treatment. 

MSF nurse Alice Echumbe describes her experiences as supervisor at MSF's Jamaa Letu family health center.

A new free trade agreement between the EU and India could severely impact access to affordable medicine in developing countries.

Learn how a free trade agreement between the European Union and India could restrict access to affordable medicines for millions of people with HIV/AIDS and other diseases and conditions.

As the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria marks its tenth anniversary, people living with HIV/AIDS and those delivering treatment took to the streets in response to drastic funding shortfalls.

The vast majority of people living with the AIDS virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo are deprived of lifesaving treatment.

MSF has released a list of important stories that had an impact on people’s ability to access needed drugs, diagnostics, and vaccines in developing countries in 2011.

Through its Access Campaign, MSF has been closely following the developments in the world of access to medicines, vaccines, and diagnostics.

On Monday, December 19, Johnson & Johnson is expected to announce whether it intends to license its patents on three lifesaving HIV/AIDS drugs to the Medicines Patent Pool, a mechanism designed to lower prices of HIV medicines and increase access to them for people in the developing world.

"The system seems to have broken down completely. It is hugely dysfunctional at every level."

MSF study shows cryptococcal meningitis as leading cause of death, but access to best treatment is a major challenge

As Africa’s AIDS Conference convenes in Addis Ababa, the promise of new scientific evidence showing treatment helps prevent transmission is mitigated by grave concerns about global funding of HIV programs.

The cancelation of Round 11 of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria undermines the significant progress that has been made in the uphill battles against these deadly diseases.

Response to President Obama’s December 1 speech on World AIDS Day, from MSF's Dr. Tido von Schoen-Angerer

MSF International President Dr. Unni Karunakara discusses the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria's decision not to accept grant applications this year to support treatment programs due to a catastrophic drop in donor funding. 

MSF responds to the unprecedented decision taken to cancel a funding round of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria.

Without appropriate funding, the opportunity to reap the benefits of new science showing that HIV treatment both saves lives and helps prevent new infections could be lost.

Dr. Calorine Mekiedje, MSF medical advisor at the Dawei clinic in the south of Myanmar, talks about treating HIV/AIDS in a country where much about the disease remains unknown and is not discussed.

An MSF outreach counselor in southern Myanmar travels village to village as part of the effort to treat HIV/AIDS and HIV-TB co-infection in the country.

Decades of conflict and a lack of government investment have made it difficult for people in DRC to access even the most basic health care. 

In early June, world leaders and global health officials gathered at the United Nations for a summit meeting on HIV/AIDS. Among the outcomes was a new treatment target, a plan to get 15 million people living with HIV/AIDS on antiretroviral (ARV) treatment by the year 2015.

The financial transaction tax due to be discussed at this week's G20 Summit could help save millions of lives if a portion of it were put toward global health.

After spotting irregularities in one medication being used in Kenya, MSF is correcting the supply problem and taking all measures to ensure adequate treatment and follow-up care for patients.

Access to affordable lifesaving medicines will be threatened where they are needed most if the U.S. implements restrictive intellectual property policies in the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement.

Novartis is lobbying India's Supreme Court to undo a key safeguard in Indian patent law, which would have a devastating impact on access to affordable medicines across the developing world.

This is the 14th edition of Untangling the Web of Antiretroviral Price Reductions (UTW), released at the International AIDS Society (IAS) Conference 2011 in Rome.

Several pharmaceutical companies have abandoned HIV drug discount programs in middle-income countries, according to an HIV drug price report released by MSF.

Pharmaceutical company Gilead's move to license several HIV/AIDS drugs to the Medicines Patent Pool could improve access but excludes several countries with many people living with HIV.

The participants of the UN Summit on AIDS took a critical step by committing to reach 15 million people with HIV treatment by 2015, but they must take concrete action to truly make this happen.

Now that research has shown that HIV treatment can reduce transmission by 96 percent, governments meeting at the UN Summit on AIDS must agree to put nine million people on treatment over the next four years.

While several countries hardest hit by the AIDS epidemic are improving HIV treatment protocols to reduce deaths and illness, a lack of support from donors prevents many from implementing vital changes.

Governments will meet at the UN in New York for an HIV/AIDS Summit June 8-10 to discuss the future of the global response to HIV. Hanging in the balance will be the lives of the ten million people.

Papua New Guinea (PNG) is a resource-rich land that won independence from its southern neighbor, Australia, in 1975 but has lagged in terms of development. The population is made up of several hundred ethnic groups that speak different dialects. Poverty is widespread, and PNG has the highest incidence of HIV/AIDS in the Pacific region. It has also long been plagued by high rates of crime and extremely high rates of domestic violence and violence against women. Seventy percent of women in PNG say they’ve been physically abused by their husbands, according to the PNG Law Reform Commission, and in some parts of the country that number reaches 100 percent.

Founded in 2003, the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) brings together the academic, medical, public health, and pharmaceutical worlds to create effective drugs to treat neglected diseases like Chagas disease, sleeping sickness, and visceral leishmaniasis.

“I’m afraid of my husband. He knows I’m positive but he lives in denial. And he has threatened with killing me if I bring condoms home,” explains a woman to the counsellor.

While several countries hardest hit by HIV/AIDS are improving treatment protocols to reduce deaths and illness, a lack of donor support still prevents many from implementing vital changes.

Johnson & Johnson, which holds patents on three key new HIV drugs desperately needed throughout the developing world, has so far refused to license these patents to the Medicines Patent Pool.

I am writing on behalf of MSF to express our disappointment that J&J has not yet placed any patent into the Medicines Patent Pool and that it has announced in a recent letter to the Medicines Patent Pool that it is not ready to engage in formal negotiations.

Despite some encouraging trends among people living with HIV in Mozambique, a great deal of work remains to be done.

In July 2002, Fred Minandi, one of MSF's first patients in Malawi to receive antiretroviral drugs, spoke about his daily life at the 14th international conference on HIV/AIDS, held in Barcelona.

New WHO directives on the treatment of HIV/AIDS bring new opportunities and new challenges, says MSF's former Head of Mission in Malawi.

The licenses a Johnson & Johnson-owned pharmaceutical company, Tibotec, granted to three generic drug makers will keep a promising new AIDS medicine from many patients across the developing world, MSF says.

India should resist pressure from the EU to accept a free trade agreement that will have an exceedingly negative impact on access to affordable medicines

January 7, 2011, New Delhi—The Indian Patent Office has just rejected patent applications related to two AIDS medicines – lopinavir/ritonavir and atazanavir - on the basis that they did not merit patents under India’s patents law.  The decisions mark a major victory for public health, and keep the door open for the production of more affordable generics that health providers such as Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) rely on to treat patients across the developing world. 

Through its Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines, MSF has been closely following the developments in the world of access to medicines, vaccines and diagnostics.

MSF joins other advocates for people living with HIV/AIDS to demand the EU stop pursuing measures that undermine India’s role as producer of affordable life-saving generic medicines

Several low-income countries highly affected by HIV risk being entirely or partly disqualified from the current funding round by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

But just as important gains are beginning to show their promise for patients, a stagnation in donor funding, coupled with trade policies that will create serious additional barriers to accessing affordable generic medicines, are dealing HIV/AIDS treatment a double blow.

In late 2009, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued new international recommendations concerning the fight against HIV/AIDS. WHO advocates treating more patients by starting antiretroviral therapy at an earlier stage and using higher quality drugs. These measures will result in an increase in the number of infected people eligible for treatment. While beneficial, the new recommendations pose many challenges and come amid an unfavorable global environment.  

HIV/AIDS treatment in developing countries is being dealt a double blow that will mean treatment recommendations cannot be implemented and the promise of new scientific research will remain unfulfilled.

The number of patients on treatment has risen dramatically over the last few years. At the end of August 2010, more than 200,000 patients were on ARV treatment in Mozambique, of whom more than 33,000 were being treated with the assistance of MSF.

"Eneza Ujumbe: The Voices of Mathare Youth" is a newsletter written by and produced by young people living with HIV in Mathare, a slum on the edge of Nairobi. MSF runs a clinic in Mathare called the Blue House, which provides healthcare to thousands of people. 

The dual epidemic of tuberculosis and HIV is devastating Swaziland, cutting life expectancy there from 60 to just 31 years of age, MSF said today in a new report.

The crucial role India plays in supplying the developing world with affordable quality medicines is being threatened.

In 2005, India put in place a patent law—fortunately it’s a law that supports public health objectives, so the result has been that India's generic manufacturers have had some space to continue producing affordable and effective medicines.

The first confirmed case of HIV infection in China was reported in 1989. Twenty years later, UNAIDS estimates that there are some 740,000 people living with HIV/AIDS across the country, with an estimated 48,000 new infections in 2009. By the early 2000s, Chinese authorities had recognised the widespread nature of the HIV epidemic and reacted by implementing new policies, as well as treatment, prevention and control programmes.

"Since the project started in 2003, the quality of medical care offered to HIV patients in Guangxi Province has vastly improved,” said Gilles Isard, head of mission for Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in China.

There was a major setback this week in the global fight to treat and prevent HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. The Global Fund brought in pledges of $11.7 billion over three years to fight these diseases. The fund was hoping to raise $20 billion. Doctors Without Borders says this shortfall will cost lives and severely weaken the ability of countries to reverse the tide of these killer infectious diseases around the world.

Geneva/New York – September 30, 2010 – The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced today it will license a patent for an HIV medicine to the Medicines Patent Pool, a mechanism designed to boost access to more affordable AIDS drugs in the developing world. The move acts as a wake-up call to pharmaceutical companies to put patents on key AIDS medicines into the pool, said the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

New York, September 28, 2010 – Country contributions to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM)—to be announced at next week’s donor replenishment meeting in New York—are expected to fall far short of the $20 billion needed for the Fund to maintain and expand its grant programs.

MSF Teleconference on Innovative Financing Mechanisms for Global Health, conducted September 20, 2010

Where resources are scarce, community groups can help maximize HIV/AIDS treatment and support each other.

The fight against childhood malnutrition and HIV could be transformed by innovative funding mechanisms currently tabled at UN Millennium Development Goals Summit.

Brussels, September 6, 2010—As finance ministers from the European Union gather in Brussels for a formal meeting to discuss the establishment of an EU-wide financial transaction tax, MSF calls on them to dedicate a proportion of the receipts from any fundraising mechanism to global health.

As the 18th International AIDS Conference (IAC) winds down here in Vienna, the word in the hallways is that the science is in: earlier initiation of treatment and improved antiretroviral (ARV) drug regimens are better for individual patients and communities, and may even ultimately reduce transmission of HIV.

The American Medical Association examines the current financing situation for HIV/AIDS programs in the midst of a persistent global economic crisis.

International donors are disregarding scientific evidence and seeking short-term cost savings at the expense of ten million people in need of treatment for HIV/AIDS.

As the International AIDS Conference (IAC) gets underway in Vienna, MSF is launching a report, “The Ten Consequences of AIDS Treatment Delayed, Deferred, or Denied," a guide to the devastation that can be expected if current trends continue.

In South Africa, where the FIFA World Cup is getting under way, MSF is trying to show that beating HIV/AIDS should be the ultimate goal.

Johanesburg/New York, May 27, 2010 - Backtracking by international donors of HIV/AIDS treatment risks undermining years of positive achievements and will cause many more unnecessary deaths, warned the medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in a new report released today.

Of the 33 million people living with AIDS worldwide, only 4 million are on treatment. We have an update from Emi McLean, director of the access to essential medicines campaign for the international humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders.

“The political winds have changed,” said Sharonann Lynch, chief author of the Doctors Without Borders report. “And I don’t believe for a minute it’s just the economic downturn. I think world leaders feel the heat is off and they’re fatigued.”

Valganciclovir is primarily used as treatment and prevention of an infection caused by cytomegalovirus (CMV) in organ transplant patients, a highly lucrative market that Roche has sought to protect by patenting the medicine. But CMV also affects people living with HIV, and if left untreated, can cause blindness and death.

After ten years of providing integrated healthcare for people living with HIV/AIDS in Busia, MSF is ready to hand over the program.

One year ago, Obama unveiled a new $63 billion global health initiative. So why are advocacy groups raising the alarm about HIV treatment shortages?

Closed-door negotiations between India and the EU are entering a crucial phase; at stake is access to affordable medicines for millions.

Lay counselors are an intergral part of MSF's TB and HIV programs in Lesotho, and each has a story to tell.

The beautiful, mountainous landscape is visible through the windows, but the patients here are all in serious condition, suffering from tuberculosis (TB), the leading cause of death of people living with HIV in Lesotho.

At one time, TB was considered on its way to being eradicated. However, the disease started a frightening comeback beginning in the 1980s and lasting through the present day.

London, March 9, 2010 – AIDS leaders gathering in London today face the daunting challenge of implementing new WHO recommendations for earlier treatment with better AIDS drug cocktails at a time when donors are backing away from the promise of “universal access."

Paris/New York, February 12, 2010—Both the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have recently approved the long-awaited heat-stable 100mg tablet version of ritonavir, the antiretroviral booster drug produced by Abbott Laboratories.

No doubt strides have been made in giving more people access to anti-retroviral drugs. But will the progress continue? Jim Clancy put that question to Emi Maclean, Director of the Doctors Without Borders Access Campaign.

Eric Goemaere hopes the patent pool will work out so he doesn't have to watch his patients in Khayelitsha die. In the U.S. HIV patients have a 69-year life expectancy. But his patients in Khayelitsha are running out of options after only 8 years on therapy. "I don't accept the principle of double standards," he says. "If it's possible to get 69 years of life in the U.S., it should be possible to get something comparable in South Africa."

Many global health advocates worry that the success of PEPfAR — an initiative that has consistently enjoyed broad bipartisan support — may be jeopardized by harsh economic realities and shifting political priorities.  After five straight years of funding hikes and public-health victories, the slowdown has AIDS advocates scratching their heads: Why would the Obama Administration back off from the one universally popular program inherited from Bush?

The Board of Directors of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria recently voted to authorize a new call for proposals in 2010, the success of which will ultimately depend on whether donors commit to fully funding the Global Fund. Without adequate funding, the progress and pace of scale-up of lifesaving HIV/AIDS treatment, particularly antiretroviral therapy (ART), supported by the Global Fund will be threatened.

The increase in availability of antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) used to treat HIV in recent years, backed by solid funding commitments, has given millions of people in poor countries a new lease on life. This is the case for tens of thousands of people living with HIV/AIDS in Malawi’s southern Thyolo district. Here, Olesi Ellemani Pasulani, clinical officer for Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) at the Thyolo District Hospital, shares his perspective on how improved access to care has changed the lives of people living with HIV/AIDS and the healthcare workers who treat them.

Today, the good news is that four million HIV-positive people are alive on antiretroviral therapy (ART). The bad news is that MSF teams working to treat HIV/AIDS are witnessing worrying signs of waning international support to combat HIV/AIDS.

Johannesburg/New York, November 5, 2009 — A retreat from international funding commitments for AIDS threatens to undermine the dramatic gains made in reducing AIDS-related illness and death in recent years, according to a new report released today by the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

“I understand what other patients are going through because, after all, I am also a patient. I take a minimum of 15 pills each day just to fight against drug-resistant TB."

MSF doctor Hermann Reuter works in a tuberculosis (TB) project in a rural district of Swaziland called Shiselweni.

Swaziland in Southern Africa is on the brink of a major health crisis due to the killer twin epidemic of HIV-AIDS and TB.

A week since the campaign was launched, well over 7,000 e-mails have been sent to the drug companies by supporters from Japan to Mexico, Myanmar to Burkina Faso.

New York/London, September 30, 2009 – The international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) today called on nine of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies to help accelerate the availability of new treatments for millions of people living with HIV/AIDS, by pooling their patents on a list of key HIV medicines.

MSF Nurse Colette Kerr describes her experience in Busia, a rural district in western Kenya, where MSF runs an HIV/AIDS project. Kerr oversaw the prevention of mother-to-child transmission program for pregnant women and new mothers.

In the developing world, HIV/AIDS is an increasingly threatening emergency. Shortages of appropriate drugs and diagnostics are now joined by new challenges. Funds for programs have dried up, even though much-needed newer drugs are priced beyond the reach of most people.

When drug companies put their patents into a patent pool, they still get their royalties, while other companies use the patents to make cheaper drugs. Everyone wins.

With a dire need for newer medications, a shortfall in funding and no increases on the horizon, the AIDS emergency in the developing world is far from over. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) spoke out at the International AIDS Society Conference held in July in Cape Town, South Africa, to push for urgent action.

An HIV vaccine trial in Thailand involving 16,000 volunteers showed potentially promising results as transmission of the virus was cut by a third. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) welcomes the initiative as it opens up a new chapter in HIV vaccine research.

Indian authorities have rejected patent requests from United States pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences for two life-saving HIV/AIDS drugs, Tenofovir and Darunavir, as they were considered to be in infringement of the patent law.

With approximately 930,000 infected persons, Malawi has one of the world's highest HIV/AIDS rates. But although 211 national facilities were offering free antiretroviral medicine (ARVs) as of late 2008, only 50 percent of patients had access to the drugs and another 290,000 were still awaiting treatment. To combat this alarming health emergency, MSF is applying a new decentralized HIV approach that brings treatment closer to the patients.

In Murwira Clinic, southeastern Zimbabwe, Dennis Taronga is receiving antiretroviral (ARV) therapy with the help of MSF. Taronga, a husband and father of three who used to work as a builder, contracted cholera in January 2009 in the historic cholera outbreak that infected nearly 100,000 people and left thousands dead. This is his story.

During the rainy season, which would coincide with the hunger gap—the time just before the next harvest when food stocks dwindle—we would treat more than 1,200 severely and moderately malnourished children every week. Because of this great need, we refused to allow anything to interfere with our activities.

Marielle Bemelmans, MSF head of mission in Malawi, explains how universal access to HIV drugs works in Malawi and why the high prices of new HIV/AIDS drugs puts this great achievement in peril.

Cape Town, July 20, 2009 – Stagnation in HIV/AIDS funding and the high cost of new medicines are putting the lives of thousands of poor patients at risk, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) warned today at the 2009 International AIDS Society conference in South Africa . Patients needing new drug regimens will return to AIDS “death row.” While the lack of access to antiretroviral treatment for seven million people remains unaddressed, inadequate financing now further threatens treatment scale-up.

Over three million people living with HIV/AIDS in the developing world receive antiretroviral therapy (ART). However, the medicines and diagnostic tools available are inadequate to respond fully to their needs. In addition, seven million people are in need of treatment and are still waiting for access.

Cape Town, July 17, 2009 - Recent disruptions in the supply of anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs and other essential medical items in at least six African countries are putting HIV patients’ lives at risk, said the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) today, in advance of the International AIDS Society Conference in Cape Town, South Africa.

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has announced the closure of HIV/AIDS-treatment projects in Transnistria, a breakaway region of Moldova unrecognized by the international community.

UNITAID and the Clinton Foundation’s HIV/AIDS Initiative (CHAI) have just announced price reductions negotiated with generic companies for 41 adult and pediatric antiretroviral formulations to treat HIV/AIDS. This is welcome news which must be interpreted with caution, says international medical humanitarian organization, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

"Condoms are the key to safe sex. They not only prevent HIV but many sexually transmitted infections. And they prevent unwanted pregnancies. Sexual intercourse is a reality of the human condition. Promoting only abstinence to control the HIV/AIDS epidemic is a naïve and unrealistic approach. A more attainable goal is to ensure that people behave in a safe way."

Amsterdam/Chisinau, February 24, 2009 — Today, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) called on the Moldovan and Transnistrian authorities as well as the international donor community to pay more attention to the health needs of the population of Transnistria.

Harare/Johannesburg/New York, February 17, 2009 —Zimbabwe's humanitarian crisis continues to rapidly deteriorate, causing appalling suffering, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) warned today. The organization’s medical teams have now treated almost 45,000 people for cholera, an estimated 75 percent of the total number of cases in the current outbreak, and the crisis is far from over.

MSF welcomes recognition by UK drugs company GlaxoSmithKline that patents act as a barrier to research and development and that patent pools offer new ways to stimulate research into neglected diseases. Promises now need to be turned into action.

Every year, tuberculosis (TB) kills about 1.7 million people and 9 million develop active disease. TB is on the rise in countries with high HIV rates, particularly in southern Africa, which has the highest rates of HIV. Tuberculosis is one of the leading causes of death for people living with HIV/AIDS, and in the past 15 years, new TB cases have tripled in countries with high HIV prevalence. People living with HIV/AIDS are up to 50 times more likely to develop active TB in a given year compared with HIV-negative individuals, and roughly a third of the 33 million people living with HIV/AIDS worldwide are infected with latent TB. Yet, in 2006 less than one percent of people living with HIV/AIDS were screened for TB.

Massive forced civilian displacements, violence, and unmet medical needs in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Iraq, Sudan, and Pakistan, along with neglected medical emergencies in Myanmar and Zimbabwe, are some of the worst humanitarian and medical emergencies in the world, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) reported today in its annual list of the “Top Ten” humanitarian crises.

Geneva, December 4, 2008—International medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) welcomes the ruling by the Madras High Court instructing India's patent office to hear the opponents to the patent application for valganciclovir by the pharmaceutical company Roche.

Geneva, November 28, 2008 - MSF calls on governments and donors to roll out existing tests faster and to considerably increase the use of a pediatric version of a standard fixed-dose combination drug – a pill that combines all needed drugs in one tablet.

There are an estimated 2.1 million children living with HIV/AIDS, according to UNAIDS, 90 percent of whom are from sub-Saharan Africa.  Only 10 percent receive any treatment for the disease.

A family in Homa Bay, Kenya describes the benefit of a fixed dose combination antiretroviral for their son's HIV/AIDS treatment.  Of the 22 antiretroviral drugs currently available, eight are not approved for pediatric use and seventeen are not available in pediatric formulations. There is a clear and urgent need for more research and development of child-friendly antiretroviral drugs. 

Thousands of people are needlessly dying due to a severe lack of lifesaving HIV/AIDS treatment in Myanmar. Unable to continue shouldering the primary responsibility for responding to one of Asia’s worst HIV crises, MSF insists that the government of Myanmar and international organizations urgently and rapidly scale-up the provision of antiretroviral therapy.

Geneva, Amsterdam, Yangon, November 25, 2008—Thousands of people are needlessly dying due to a severe lack of lifesaving HIV/AIDS treatment in Myanmar, said the international medical humanitarian organization MSF in a report released today. Unable to continue shouldering the primary responsibility for responding to one of Asia’s worst HIV crises, MSF insists that the government of Myanmar and international organizations urgently and rapidly scale-up the provision of antiretroviral therapy (ART).

MSF presented medical data from its HIV/AIDS treatment programs around the world at the 17th International AIDS Conference (IAC) in Mexico City

A patent-sharing scheme that helped the United States build planes during World War I now could help drug manufacturers create new, urgently needed medicines.

Mankaza, 15, tried to get away inconspicuously from the other girls at her boarding school in southern Zimbabwe. But before she could leave the hall some of her classmates started jeering and soon all joined in, "Where are you going Mankaza? Mankaza's going to juice up, Mankaza's going to juice up!"

Rio de Janeiro/New York, September 2, 2008 – The Brazilian Patent Office has rejected a patent application by Gilead on the drug tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF), in a move that could increase access to a key HIV/AIDS medicine across the developing world, says international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

MSF is now treating close to 40,000 HIV-positive people in Zimbabwe, over 7,000 of whom are children. It is estimated that there are about 2 million HIV-infected people in the country. The virus can be transmitted to the fetus during the pregnancy through the placenta, though there is a higher risk of infection during delivery when the baby comes into contact with the mother’s blood.

Mexico City, August 5, 2008 —Treating children and adolescents living with HIV effectively in resource-limited settings is possible, but adapted medicines, diagnostic tools, and treatment strategies are urgently needed to prevent more deaths, according to Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

Mexico City, 3 August 2008 – On the opening day of the XVII International Aids Conference, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) warned of the deadly impact that the lack of health care workers is having on AIDS treatment and care in southern Africa.  In a satellite meeting called “Mind the Gaps” organized by MSF here today, experts described the scope and impact of the health care worker shortage as well as the critical need to increase government and donor commitment to taking immediate concrete steps to retain and support health care workers now.

HIV/AIDS treatment and management are essential components of many MSF programs worldwide. Currently MSF provides antiretroviral therapy (ART) for over 140,000 patients in 27 countries, with about 10,000 of those patients being children. In conjunction with this year’s International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, this document presents MSF’s current “state of play” in providing quality care to people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in resource-limited settings.

Dr Eric Goemaere, medical co-ordinator for MSF in South Africa, discusses diagnosing and managing HIV-TB co-infection.

Karen Day, Pharmacist Coordinator for MSF’s Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines, provides an overview of some of the key issues in the 11th edition report ‘Untangling the Web of Antiretroviral Price Reductions.’

Elena Alonso, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) medical advisor for HIV/AIDS-TB programs.

Dr. Mit Philips of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) answers questions about how the lack of health care workers threatens further roll-out of HIV/AIDS treatment to those in urgent need of it in sub-Saharan Africa.

Dr. Peter Saranchuk was the medical coordinator at MSF’s HIV/AIDS project in Lesotho. Here, he explains the reasons behind the dangerous relationship between TB and HIV.

Ellen ‘t Hoen, Policy Advocacy Director of MSF’s Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines, outlines how the a patent pool would work and what benefits it could bring.

For patients with advanced HIV, complications from CMV retinitis— most notably blindness—are preventable. However, screening and treatment are out of reach in many places where CMV retinitis is prevalent.

Uganda is one of the African countries that boasts of being at the forefront in the fight against AIDS. The country has initiated the decentralization of HIV/AIDS care in a plan to get all Ugandans living with HIV on effective antiretroviral (ARV) treatment. However, in its field operations in Uganda, where Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières is working to deliver quality medical care and follow-up for people living with HIV/AIDS, they've come face to face with the flaws of this decentralization process.

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a member of the herpes virus family that was a familiar cause of blindness and death in patients with advanced AIDS in Western countries in the 1980s and 1990s, when it occurred in roughly one-third of patients with AIDS.

Geneva/Bangkok, December 1, 2007 – Failure to diagnose and treat cytomegalovirus retinitis (CMV) in people with AIDS is leading to unnecessary blindness, according to a paper published today in the journal PLoS Medicine. The authors found in pilot studies that CMV retinitis, which has been dramatically reduced in wealthy countries since the advent of antiretroviral therapy, occurred in 23%, 27%, and 32% of patients with advanced AIDS in Cambodia, Myanmar and Thailand respectively. By training clinicians to screen and taking steps to make the best treatment affordable, the authors argue that CMV diagnosis and treatment can easily be integrated into existing AIDS treatment programs.

Sydney/New York, July 24, 2007 – New pediatric treatment data presented by the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) at the 4th International AIDS Society conference in Sydney, Australia, demonstrate good clinical results but sub-optimal virological outcomes. The results confirm concerns about the effectiveness of treating children without access to appropriate and adapted pediatric AIDS drug formulations.

Every minute, a child under the age of 15 is infected with HIV. AIDS kills over 1,000 children every day, and claims roughly half a million young lives every year.

Alison Wong was the pharmacist for the Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) HIV/AIDS program at Arua Regional Referral Hospital in Uganda from September 2005 to October 2006. MSF began the program in 2001 to provide antiretroviral (ARV) treatment to people in the region living with HIV. It has grown to include treatment for people co-infected with HIV and TB, and to establishing better decentralized care.

Johannesburg, South Africa, May 24, 2007 — The dire lack of health care workers in southern Africa is threatening efforts to expand access to HIV/AIDS treatment, warned the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in a new report issued today. The report covers four southern African countries–Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique and South Africa–where more than one million people still need life-saving antiretroviral treatment but do not have access to it. Lack of action will result in unnecessary illness and death.

Press teleconference on Thailand's compulsory licensing of an HIV/AIDS treatment, Abbott's response, and the coming crisis in availablity of second-line HIV drugs in developing countries.

MSF began treating MDR-TB in Kenya in May of 2006. With four patients enrolled at "Blue House" and three on the shores of Lake Victoria in a town called Homa Bay, MSF remains the only provider of MDR-TB treatment in the country today. Around Nairobi alone, it is estimated there are about 50 cases, but there is no capacity to absorb them.

Los Angeles, March 1, 2007 — New data released by the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) at the 14th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) in Los Angeles this week demonstrates good clinical outcomes for second-line antiretroviral therapy (ART) in resource-poor settings. Newer medicines needed for second-line regimens, however, remain unaffordable and largely unavailable in affected countries, and adapted diagnostic tools needed to appropriately monitor lifelong treatment are missing.

In late December 2006, after four years of treating people living with HIV/AIDS in Coatepec, MSF transferred that responsibility to the country's public health agencies. Preparation for the handover had been underway for more than a year. The transfer was implemented gradually, concluding only when the agencies taking responsibility were ready to ensure continuity of care. MSF continues to provide treatment to people living with HIV/AIDS in Puerto Barrios and Guatemala City.

MSF expresses concern over the US intervention in the decision by the government of Thailand to issue a compulsory license on patents for the AIDS drug efavirenz, and explains why the US government should refrain from such actions.

New York,  November  29, 2006  - AIDS treatment in the developing world will not be sustainable unless international institutions get serious about the high cost of newer medicines, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) warned today.

Bangkok/New York, November 29, 2006 — Thailand today for the first time announced it will issue a compulsory license for use by the government to improve access to a key HIV/AIDS medicine, efavirenz. The international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) welcomes this important move and urges the government to issue such licenses for the production of other essential medicines.

Guatemala/Geneva, November 3, 2006 - On the occasion of the board meeting of the Global Fund to Fight against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, in Guatemala City, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is calling for increased efforts from the government of Guatemala and the Global Fund to maintain treatment of patients living with HIV/AIDS and to expand coverage to those not currently under treatment in Guatemala, where an estimated 60 percent of people living with HIV/AIDS requiring treatment do not receive it, according to UNAIDS.

With approximately 9 million people developing active tuberculosis (TB) every year and 1.7 million deaths annually, TB is far from under control. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection dramatically increases the risk of developing active tuberculosis and is driving the TB epidemic in Africa.

Toronto, Canada, August 15, 2006 — Two new studies released by Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) at the XVI International AIDS Conference in Toronto this week demonstrate good outcomes in antiretroviral treatment (ART) of children living with HIV/AIDS across a wide array of resource-poor settings, but also show that pediatric drug formulations are excessively overpriced, costing up to six times more than adult equivalents.

Canada was the first G8 country to amend its national laws to implement the World Trade Organization’s August 30th decision, allowing generic versions of patented drugs to be manufactured and exported under compulsory license.

In the past 5 years, considerable progress has been made in scaling-up access to antiretroviral therapy.  Today, 1.3 million people are receiving treatment.  But a huge amount remains to be done.

Bangkok/New York, July 6, 2006 – People living with HIV/AIDS in developing countries in urgent need of an improved version of the AIDS drug lopinavir/ritonavir continue to be denied access to it by its sole manufacturer, Abbott Laboratories, according to the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

After four years of seeking permission to bring HIV/AIDS treatment to China's Henan province, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has found the door firmly shut by the provincial authorities. Henan is particularly hard hit by HIV; between the mid-1980s and mid-1990s many poor farmers got infected in a poorly run commercial program for blood donation and transfusion.

New Delhi, May 10, 2006 – The medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is today expressing its support for Indian civil society groups in their battle against a patent application by Gilead Sciences for the key AIDS drug tenofovir (tenofovir disoproxil fumarate, TDF). People living with HIV/AIDS in India opposed the patent application yesterday on the grounds that the drug consists of a previously known compound, and should not be considered an invention according to India's Patent Act.

Caring for children with HIV/AIDS is charged with obstacles. The struggle begins with doctors not being able to tell whether antibodies found in a small baby's blood are from the mother or whether they suggest the child itself is infected with the virus. Frustrated with the situation, MSF has been cooperating with scientists working on a new technology.

The HIV/AIDS pandemic has vividly brought to the world's attention the fact that an increasing percentage of the world's population lives without access to essential medicines. The access crisis is twofold — on the one hand, crucially needed diagnostics, drugs, and vaccines that safely and efficiently respond to diseases affecting the world's poorest do not exist; and on the other, patients living in poverty cannot afford their own treatment, as those medicines that do exist are priced beyond their reach.

New York, April 27, 2006 – Abbott Laboratories is failing to make an important new AIDS drug formulation available to people in developing countries, according to the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). MSF urges the Chicago-based drug company to take immediate steps to make the heat-stable tablet version of lopinavir/ritonavir, marketed as Kaletra, available outside of the United States. MSF also calls on Abbott to fill an order for the medicine for 400 MSF patients in nine countries that the organization placed over one month ago on March 15, 2006.

New Delhi/Geneva, March 30, 2006 — Today, the Indian Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (INP+), the Manipur Network of Positive People (MNP+), and the Lawyers' Collective HIV/AIDS Unit officially submitted their opposition to a patent application filed in the Kolkata patent office by Glaxo Group Limited for Combivir, a fixed-dose combination of two AIDS drugs (zidovudine/lamivudine, or AZT/3TC). The opposition is based on technical and health grounds. If India grants a patent on this AIDS drug, it will set a precedent that will hamper access to affordable AIDS medicines worldwide.

Geneva, March 28, 2006 — As the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNAIDS release a long-awaited report on their 3x5 AIDS treatment initiative, and call for universal access to AIDS drugs, the medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is expressing concern that not enough is being done to make sure that the drugs needed to expand and sustain treatment are accessible to those who need them.

Lagos/Berlin/New York, March 15, 2006 — People living with HIV/AIDS in developing countries can't get new and/or improved drugs that can make a critical difference, said the medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). MSF also said that it refuses to accept the standard practice of drug companies to market less adapted drugs to African, Asian and Latin American countries while reserving improved or newly developed drugs for countries that can pay more. For this reason MSF is placing an order directly with the worldwide headquarters of Abbott Laboratories in Chicago for a new heat stable version of the drug called lopinavir/ritonavir, which the company right now only sells in the US at a price of US$9,687 (average wholesale price) per patient per year.

Transcript of a press teleconference on the lack of availability of Abbott's new heat-stable Kaletra in African countries.

Denver, CO, February 7, 2006 — As AIDS experts gather this week in Denver to discuss advances in treatment at the 13th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI), Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is concerned that innovations from years ago are still not reaching people in developing countries. More than three years after Gilead Sciences first announced its "Access Program" for tenofovir, this key antiretroviral medicine remains largely unavailable in developing countries.

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is alarmed at the lack of availability of a key antiretroviral to treat HIV/AIDS, Gilead Science's tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF), marketed as Viread^®.

Abuja, Nigeria, December 8, 2005 - Newer AIDS drugs and formulations of existing drugs are urgently needed in Africa but are not available because brand name companies are choosing not to sell them and there are no generic versions, according to the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

Abuja, Nigeria, December 6, 2005 - Having to pay for HIV/AIDS care increases the risk of treatment failure, according to new research from Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) presented this week at the International Conference on AIDS and Sexually transmitted infections in Africa (ICASA), in Abuja, Nigeria.

One of the reasons that half of all children with HIV/AIDS die before the age of two is that pharmaceutical companies are not making child-friendly versions of their anti-AIDS drugs.

Millions of children with HIV/AIDS die every year because there are no appropriate diagnostic tools and pediatric antiretroviral (ARV) formulations that are affordable. 95% of these children live in poor countries. In the West, infections from mother to child can be effectively prevented, and ARV therapy gives children born with HIV an excellent chance of reaching adulthood.

Felipe Garcia de la Vega is a pediatrician who first worked with MSF in Peru in 1997, followed by missions in Burma and Mozambique. Since May 2005, he has been the HIV/AIDS & TB Advisor to MSF's Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines in Geneva. He speaks about treating children with HIV/AIDS.

Nairobi/New York, November 28, 2005 — One of the reasons that half of all children with HIV/AIDS die before the age of two is that pharmaceutical companies are not making child-friendly versions of their anti-AIDS drugs. Today, Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) calls on companies to make easy-to-use versions for children of all their AIDS medicines to help prolong and improve the lives of more children with HIV/AIDS. There is also a desperate need for simple and affordable AIDS tests for babies in resource-poor settings.

Of all the challenges Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) faces treating HIV/AIDS in China, perhaps none is as daunting as the pervasive stigma surrounding the disease

Monique Wanjala, training facilitator in the MSF program in Kibera, Nairobi, has been on antiretroviral therapy since early 2004. She speaks about her life and her work with MSF.

Accompanied by Waweru, an HIV counselor, a woman walks into a consultation room of the Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) 'Blue House' clinic in Nairobi. She is carrying a child and looks weary. Her loosely tied headscarf looks as if it is about to fall off. She has her hands full with a traditional woven bag–a "kiondo"–hanging from her shoulder and her three-year-old son, Titus, all swaddled up on her arms.

Children account for around 350 of the 5,000 people living with HIV/AIDS who are receiving antiretroviral (ARV) treatment through Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Chiradzulu, Malawi. Since last spring, children have had their own appointment day. Grouping the children in a pediatric clinic means that they receive more appropriate medical and psychological care.

On June 29, MSF inaugurated a new medical clinic in Silanga, in the heart of the Kibera slum on the outskirts of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. It is the third HIV/AIDS treatment clinic opened by MSF in Kibera, the largest slum in Africa with an estimated 1.2 million inhabitants.

Rio de Janeiro/Geneva, 27 July 2005 – Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is successfully treating an increasing number of children living with HIV/AIDS, according to data from MSF treatment programs presented at a "late breaker" session at the 3rd International AIDS Society Conference in Rio de Janeiro. MSF's clinical outcomes are good despite the fact that currently available diagnostic tests and medicines are poorly adapted for children.

Every minute of every day, a child under the age of 15 is infected with HIV. AIDS kills 1,400 children every single day, and claims more than half a million young lives every year.

Janthimala Price, a midwife from Australia, spent 20 months at the Arua Hospital AIDS Program in rural northwestern Uganda. The program was set up in July 2002 by the Arua Regional Referral Hospital Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) to treat HIV/AIDS patients.

January 27, 2005 - The World Health Organization released its "3 by 5" progress report on January 26, 2005 at the Davos World Economic Forum congratulating itself on progress made in the drive to fight the HIV pandemic. But only 700,000, or 12%, of the nearly six million people in need of antiretroviral (ARV) treatment in developing countries have access to it today. Looking at these figures Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), who provides ARV treatment to more than 25,000 patients in 27 countries, comes to the exact opposite conclusion.

The benefits of treatment are clear. Patients are doing well: their immune systems are stronger, they are gaining weight, and are able to live fuller and longer lives.

Dr. Rowan Gillies
President, Medecins Sans Frontieres International Council
Bernard Hirschel
Head, HIV/AIDS Division
Geneva University Hospital

MSF and Bernard Hirschel respond to Carol Adelman's Wall Street Journal Opinion Piece

Durban/Brussels, 13 December 2004: Starting from Tuesday, 14 December 2004, an alliance of renowned experts, institutions and non-governmental organizations will launch the ‘Free by 5’ declaration and present it to the World Bank, aid donors, the World Health Organization (WHO), UNAIDS and many other parties. While the WHO aims to have three million HIV-positive people on Anti-Retroviral (ARV) treatment in the course of next year, the declaration points out that ARVs and associated care need to be provided free of charge to all patients in developing countries.

A response from Roger Teck, MD, Doctors Without Borders physcian in Thyolo, Malawi to a San Francisco Chronicle op-ed article.

In the Southeast Asian country hardest hit by HIV/AIDS, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is battling the disease with life-prolonging antiretroviral medication. But in Cambodia, there are still obstacles that must be overcome before AIDS treatment is available for all.

New York/Geneva, November 30, 2004 - Donor governments and countries hardest hit by HIV/AIDS must take immediate steps to address today's treatment deficit emergency and the gaps in research and development to fight the pandemic, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) urged on the eve of World AIDS Day 2004.

By Eric Goemaere, Special to The Times

Malawi's health infrastructure is weak and has so far been unable to cope with this burden of chronic illness. Comprehensive HIV care and support, including HAART (Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy), is urgently needed.

MSF launched an HIV/AIDS treatment project in Villa El Salvador, a poor suburb of Lima with a population of 350,000.

Arua, Uganda, 29 July 2004 - The Arua Hospital AIDS Program today commemorated two years of providing free access to antiretroviral (ARV) treatment for nearly 1,100 people living with HIV/AIDS in Arua, a rural region in northwestern Uganda. The community celebration included dramatic performances as well as visits by Jim Muhwezi, Minister of Health of Uganda, Stephen Lewis, UN Special Envoy on HIV/AIDS in Africa, and others. A partnership between the Arua Regional Referral Hospital and the international medical humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), the Arua Hospital AIDS Program also marked the occasion by releasing a clinical monitoring report showing how well patients are responding to ARV therapy and pointing to the urgent need for expansion of access to free ARV treatment in Uganda.

July 29, 2004, STEPHEN LEWIS, UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa:  I am honored to share this time with all of you. I've never been at such a celebration before. I've spent the last 3 years of my life traveling through Africa, observing the situation of HIV and AIDS, and I've never been at such a moment of triumph, and I congratulate you for it. It will obviously allow me to tell the world what is happening here in Arua. I'm especially happy to be here at the invitation of the Arua Regional Hospital, and Dr. Olaro, and, of course, colleagues from MSF. I am a Canadian. I have watched MSF in many parts of the world and in my own country. In my view, MSF is probably the most principled and impressive nongovernmental organization on the planet, and it is a pleasure they are here.

In Arua, MSF now provides medical care for nearly 3,000 people living with HIV/AIDS. In July 2004, MSF collected testimonies from patients undergoing treatment about their experiences living with HIV/AIDS before and since receiving treatment.

International pharmaceutical industries and governments are failing to develop and produce AIDS medicines and diagnostic tools suited to children, claimed Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières(MSF) today at the XV International AIDS Conference in Bangkok.

Bangkok, 12 July 2004 - Treatment of people living with HIV/AIDS with antiretroviral medicines (ARVs) is effective, even for patients at advanced stages of the disease living in resource-poor settings, according to new clinical data released by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) today at the XV International AIDS Conference in Bangkok. Simplification of treatment, including use of three-in-one fixed-dose combinations (FDCs) of ARVs, has allowed MSF to rapidly scale up its AIDS treatment programs from 1,500 patients in 10 countries to 13,000 patients in 25 countries over two years. But the organization also reported that significant challenges remain, including the lack of affordable second-line drugs and pediatric formulations.

Since May 2001, three HIV/AIDS clinics in the three day-hospitals in Khayelitsha have been offering antiretroviral therapy to people with AIDS who need treatment.

Although there are many challenges to scaling up AIDS treatment in resource-limited settings, MSF has some key concerns related to the PEPFAR policy on procurement of medicines.

To request that space be added to the meeting agenda for the presentation of actual field experience using FDCs, including clinical outcomes, and the identification of concrete strategies for increasing access to affordable FDCs.

More than sixteen months after the multinational pharmaceutical company Merck & Co. announced that it would reduce the price of its first-line AIDS drug Stocrin (efavirenz, EFV) to less than $1 per day in developing countries, the offer has failed to materialize.

Bangkok, Thailand, February 13, 2004 - The recent court victory of two Thai people living with HIV/AIDS against a multinational pharmaceutical company is described in an article published in today's Lancet medical journal.

In Khayelitsha township, a poor area near Cape Town, Eric Goemaere, MD, head of MSF in South Africa, works with colleagues and local AIDS advocacy groups to bring antiretroviral (ARV) treatment to those who need it and to push the country's government to do much more.

Volunteer social worker Alain Rias is helping MSF provide treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS in Honduras.

From Thailand to South Africa, MSF field projects still struggle to overcome cost barriers associated with antiretroviral medicines and treatments for common HIV-related opportunistic infections.

According to the Joint United Nations Program on AIDS (UNAIDS), 95% of the world's 36 million people with HIV/AIDS live in the developing world. Seventy per cent of adults and 80% of children with HIV/AIDS live in Africa.

MSF currently operates or is implementing nearly 50 HIV/ AIDS projects in over 25 countries.

It took coming to South Africa as an MSF volunteer for me to understand that the horror of apartheid had not disappeared. A new scourge, AIDS, had appeared in its place.

In this issue of Alert, several MSF field projects present their insights on treating HIV/AIDS in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and Eastern Europe.

Pierre is a patient at the MSF/PRESICA HIV clinic in Yaoundé, the capital of Cameroon. Since January 2001, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has been running a pilot project providing antiretroviral (ARV) therapy to people living with AIDS. Pierre is one of the lucky few to receive this treatment, and he is beating the odds.