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R36bn needed for world Aids
02/07/2004 19:09 - (SA)
Paris - The world will need between $5.1bn (about R31.5bn) and $5.9bn (about R36bn) to meet a United Nations target to ensure that three million poor people get access to anti-HIV drugs by the end of the 2005, experts say.
The estimate comprises drugs, medical support and administrative and logistical costs, they say.
The so-called Three by Five (3x5) initiative was launched by the UN's World Health Organisation (WHO) and the specialist agency, UNAids, in September last year.
Its focus is on low- and middle-income countries, particularly in Africa, which are bearing the brunt of the global Aids pandemic, but cannot afford antiretroviral drugs.
The estimate is published in next Saturday's issue of the British medical weekly, The Lancet, ahead of the July 11-16 International Aids Conference in Bangkok.
Lead author is Juan Pablo Gutierrez of the National Institute of Public Health at Cuernavaca, Mexico; other authors are specialists working for WHO and UNAids.
40 million have HIV worldwide
The figure covers spending in 2004 and 2005, and concurs with UNAids' rough expectations last year that at least $5bn will be needed to meet the goal.
The cost range in the study is explained by two factors - how quickly the scale-up of drug distribution unfolds and how pricey the drugs are.
Two drug prices were factored in.
They ranged from $140 (about R860) a patient a year - the price negotiated by the Clinton Foundation for standard first-line treatment in selected countries - to $304 (about R1 870) a year, which includes the cost of alternative drugs which would be added if the first-line treatment had to be switched, as is very often the case in Aids.
About 40 million people around the world have the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) which causes Aids, according to WHO/UNAids figures released last November.
Two-thirds of them live in sub-Saharan Africa, the world's poorest region.
Africa figures rocketing
UNAids executive director Peter Piot said "close to 500 000 people" in developing countries were now receiving antiretrovirals, twice the number of two years ago.
Of that total, "well over 100 000" were in Africa, which compared with just 25 000 in 2002, he said.
Global spending on Aids last year was $4.7bn "and this year it's increasing further", although it was still short of what was needed, he said.
UNAids estimates the world will have to spend $10.7bn in low- and middle-income countries in 2005 to combat the pandemic and &14.9bn in 2007.
- AFP
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