AN international group of activists from over 125 counties urged, in a report released last week, all governments to strengthen their political will toward the easing accessibility of drugs to treat HIV-AIDS, a disease that remains a threat to populations around the world.

The International Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPC) report included the Philippines as one of those countries that still have problems of access to treatment.

Globally, the report said that “at the current pace of growth in treatment delivery, several million [patients] will not have access by the end of 2010.”

Highly developed countries in the Group of Eight (G8) eye 2010 as the target for providing universal access to treatment and prevention of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).

“Estimates of [human immunodeficiency virus] incidence and prevalence will change, but by any account, several million people in desperate need of AIDS treatment do not have access to it,” said the report, “Missing the Target #5: Improving AIDS Drug Access and Advancing Health Care for All.”

The ITPC warned, “Broken promises will mean millions of deaths.” The report said one of the countries with the problem of access to treatment is the Philippines. “In the Philippines, treatment is not yet accessible to all, there is a health-care worker shortage and diagnostic testing access is limited.”

The ITPC conclusion was based on the report of Remedios AIDS Foundation Inc. personnel Nenet L. Ortega and Noel Quinto and Pinoy Plus Association Inc. president Eddy Razon that said the government remained slow in delivering needed drugs and lacked skilled health workers.

The Philippine report said, “As of October 2007, nearly all of the almost 500 people diagnosed with AIDS in the Philippines are not receiving antiretroviral treatment [ART].”
The authors added that even if “there are now 11 treatment centers distributed around the country, the number of adequately trained and competent health providers capable of providing HIV/AIDS management remains limited.”

They said “Many have chosen not to begin treatment because they fear potential side effects, a situation that indicates a lack of appropriate treatment literacy and education among HIV-positive individuals.”

The Philippine report authors said the Department of Health and the Joint United Nations Programme on AIDS characterized the HIV incidence in the Philippines as “low and slow” but “hidden and growing.”

“Since 1984, when the first individual was diagnosed, a cumulative total of 2,916 HIV cases have been officially registered,” although World Health Organization estimates that perhaps 10,000 Filipinos may be HIV-positive but unaware of their serostatus.

Serostatus is the presence or absence of antibodies in a person’s blood serum. A person can be seropositive if antibodies are present or seronegative if antibodies are not present.

According to official data, 2,146 Filipinos are asymptomatic and 770 have been diagnosed with AIDS, of whom 304 have died. “The official numbers do not include those diagnosed outside of the country.”

Ortega and her coauthors noted that four years ago, the government promised to provide these Filipinos with access to comprehensive treatment, care and support, tapping a global fund for the purchase of drugs.

But, the authors noted, several factors intervened to hamper the government’s ability to procure sufficient drugs, including failure to register with the Philippine National Drug Formulary the essential antiretroviral drugs, no estimate for bulk drug purchase because HIV clinics could not produce the pertinent data.

“Drug distribution mechanisms were not yet organized; diagnostic tests were unavailable, including those for CD4 counts, viral load, and liver function; and standard treatment guidelines had not yet been established,” said the authors.

The authors also noted “Not all treatment centers have community-based partners that can conduct treatment follow-up, counseling, and home visits for those on ART. There is no well-established mechanism to refer clients to other potentially useful health and social services.” 

The authors also took a swipe at local governments in regions with treatment centers that they said “are not shouldering their responsibilities” for delivery of drugs.

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THE United Nations (UN) reinvigorated its warning on the continued danger of an avian-influenza epidemic in individual nations and possible pandemic in the world in its joint report with the World Bank (WB) on the bird flu, although incidence has declined.

AN international group of activists from over 125 counties urged, in a report released last week, all governments to strengthen their political will toward the easing accessibility of drugs to treat HIV-AIDS, a disease that remains a threat to populations around the world.

THE BusinessMirror placed third in the Institutional Category for papers devoting editorial space to biotechnology issues, in the Third Jose G. Burgos Jr. Awards for Biotech Journalism at the Balai Kalinaw, University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City

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