Promoting generics and helping street children
Approximately 67,000 of Guatemala's 14 million people are HIV-positive
and 4,800 of them are children. More than 7,500 people have
already developed AIDS and are in need of immediate treatment.
Today MSF staff give nearly 1,100 patients life-extending antiretroviral
(ARV) medicines in two Guatemala City hospitals, and health centers in
Coatepeque and Puerto Barrios.
Getting treatment to those who need it is
not easy, though. A number of legal
obstacles and heavy US pressure for
Guatemala to sign the US-Central American
Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) will limit the
availability of medicines to fight AIDS as
well as other diseases like Chagas (read more about Chagas disease here).
Since ARV medicines are not under patent in the
country, MSF had been able to treat people
with generic medicines, which are 75-99
percent cheaper than the brand-name
drugs bought by the government. But in
July 2003, the government introduced legislation
that will limit the use of generics,
block the entry of inexpensive treatments
and harm local medicine production.
The recently signed CAFTA includes excessive
levels of intellectual property protections
that will restrict access to essential medicines
throughout the region. Guatemalan
groups and MSF have urged the
Guatemalan congress to repeal the July
2003 decree, and insist that intellectual
property provisions in CAFTA not go
beyond pre-existing World Trade
Organization agreements. Removing
obstacles to generics and improving
access to quality medicines will help save
thousands of lives in Guatemala.
Since 1999, MSF has run a project in
Guatemala City that provides free health
care and psychological counseling to more
than 700 street children and young adults,
some of whom have been living in the
streets for a decade or more. There are high
suicide and substance abuse rates among
the street kids. MSF psychologists and educators
help them on a daily basis, providing
basic health care, accompanying them to
hospitals and providing counseling to
improve their self-esteem. The team works
alongside members of the street community
to raise awareness of the misery of
street life with the aim of relieving the discrimination
many street kids face from authorities and public services.
The therapeutic day care center in Lomas
de Santa Faz, a slum on the outskirts of
Guatemala City, provides medical and psychological
care for children coping with
the consequences of chronic domestic violence
and neglect. These children, whose
parents were displaced during years of civil
war in Guatemala, suffer from malnutrition,
physical or sexual abuse and developmental
problems. The project, unique in
Guatemala, includes a nutrition program,
a variety of psychological and social therapies
for the children, and offers parents
counseling to help them learn to protect
and nurture their children. MSF will hand
over this program, started in 1996, to a
local NGO this year.
MSF has worked in Guatemala since 1988.
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