[procaare] Thailand Begins Distributing Free AIDS Drugs to 50,000

[ProCAARE <procaare@healthnet.org>]

Thailand begins distributing free AIDS drugs to 50,000 sufferers
Associated Press, 1 October 2003
************

The Thai government on Wednesday launched a program to provide free drugs to slow down the
symptoms of AIDS among 50,000 citizens who harbor the virus that causes the deadly
disease.

The program, with a budget of nearly 1 billion baht (US$25 million), is the first in any
country to provide continuous treatment with antiretroviral drugs to so many people,
Public Health Minister Sudarat Keyuraphan said.

As many as 1 million of Thailand's 63 million people have HIV, the virus that causes AIDS,
according to estimates by the United Nations and other organizations.

Sudarat said Thailand has already managed to slow the rate of infection through campaigns
to promote the use of condoms, according to a health ministry news release. HIV is most
commonly spread through unprotected sexual contact and the shared use of syringes for
injecting illegal drugs.

The new program, aimed especially for postpartum women and children, will focus on people
whose clinical symptoms are still at a relatively mild stage. However, all AIDS sufferers
under the age of 12 months will be eligible to receive the drugs regardless of their
condition.

Antiretroviral drugs such as those being used in the program slow the spread of HIV rather
than cure the disease.

Thailand's Government Pharmaceutical Organization manufactures generic versions of such
drugs at low cost, even though patents on many such drugs are held by multinational drug
companies.

AIDS activists have been seeking to reduce the price of medicines used to treat HIV,
saying the high prices discriminate against the poor and the developing world.
Pharmaceutical companies have trimmed prices somewhat but generally oppose steep cuts
because of the need to recover the high costs of research and development.

Thailand and other countries such as India have used loopholes in patent laws to
manufacture their own versions of such drugs to make them more affordable.

The Nation, 30 September 2003

Source: HIV-News-AsiaPacific@dgroups.org
[hiv-news-asiapacific] No 310 - (3 October 2003)

--
ProCAARE is currently supporting the 6th Home and Community Care
Conference in Dakar, Senegal (December 8 - 12, 2003).
For more information: http://www.dakarvih2003.sn/

To send a message to ProCAARE, write to: procaare@healthnet.org
To subscribe or unsubscribe, write to: majordomo@healthnet.org
in the body of the message type: subscribe procaare OR unsubscribe procaare
To contact a person, send a message to: procaare-help@healthnet.org
Information and archives: http://www.procaare.org

The views presented in ProCAARE do not necessarily reflect the opinions of
SATELLIFE  (http://www.healthnet.org), the Harvard AIDS Institute
(http://aids.harvard.edu), or Health & Development Networks
(http://www.hdnet.org), unless otherwise stated. The reader assumes all
responsibilities in using information posted or archived by ProCAARE.
Reproduction is welcomed, provided ProCAARE and procaare@healthnet.org
are quoted, and SATELLIFE is informed of usage.