Subsidise AIDS Drugs
Jul 12, 2003
VISITING US President George W. Bush has reiterated his administration’s commitment to fighting AIDS in Africa.
VISITING US President George W. Bush has reiterated his administration’s commitment to fighting AIDS in Africa.
The United States is still working on the finer points of how to use the $15b subvention that is expected to be passed by Congress for spending over the next five years.
But one of the crucial points the Americans would have learnt in meeting patients, health workers and government officials in Uganda, Botswana and South Africa this week is that treatments are presently unaffordable for the multitudes that need them.
For Uganda, we do need our best efforts to be complemented. The success in bringing down prevalence of HIV in our population is tempered by the large number of patients who do not have access to affordable drugs. Of the estimated 1.1million Ugandans who are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, 150,000 are in need of immediate treatment. But of those, only 15,000, or ten per cent of patients are getting anti-retroviral drugs. The other 90% cannot afford drugs that cost a patient about $40 (shs80,000) a month in a country with an annual income per capita of $350 (shs700,000).
It has been argued by AIDS lobby groups that the US and other rich country governments should lean on pharmaceutical companies to lower the price of their drugs. While this may be sentimentally understandable, it may not be feasible, as the drug companies do need to recoup the millions spent in research. A solution would be in using a big chunk of the $15b to subsidise the price and make the drugs affordable to all who need them. That would be the lasting benefit of George W. Bush’s visit.
Ends
The United States is still working on the finer points of how to use the $15b subvention that is expected to be passed by Congress for spending over the next five years.
But one of the crucial points the Americans would have learnt in meeting patients, health workers and government officials in Uganda, Botswana and South Africa this week is that treatments are presently unaffordable for the multitudes that need them.
For Uganda, we do need our best efforts to be complemented. The success in bringing down prevalence of HIV in our population is tempered by the large number of patients who do not have access to affordable drugs. Of the estimated 1.1million Ugandans who are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, 150,000 are in need of immediate treatment. But of those, only 15,000, or ten per cent of patients are getting anti-retroviral drugs. The other 90% cannot afford drugs that cost a patient about $40 (shs80,000) a month in a country with an annual income per capita of $350 (shs700,000).
It has been argued by AIDS lobby groups that the US and other rich country governments should lean on pharmaceutical companies to lower the price of their drugs. While this may be sentimentally understandable, it may not be feasible, as the drug companies do need to recoup the millions spent in research. A solution would be in using a big chunk of the $15b to subsidise the price and make the drugs affordable to all who need them. That would be the lasting benefit of George W. Bush’s visit.
Ends