In 2002, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams opened the first outpatient treatment center offering free care to people living with HIV in Kinshasa, the capital of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Twenty years later, we are still actively meeting urgent needs, supporting the Ministry of Health in the provision of HIV/AIDS care and services in Kinshasa and in six provinces of DRC (North Kivu, South Kivu, Maniema, Ituri, Kasai Oriental and Kongo Central). This support takes the form of direct patient care, training for health care providers, and the provision of essential medicines and medical supplies. Despite this significant progress, major gaps remain in the availability of testing and treatment, causing thousands of preventable deaths each year.
When the doors of MSF's treatment center opened in May 2002, the situation was critical: more than one million men, women, and children were living with HIV in DRC, but antiretroviral (ARV) treatment was scarce and unaffordable in the country. By the early 2000s, the virus killed between 50,000 and 200,000 people each year in DRC, according to UNAIDS.