HIV/AIDS

The increase in availability of antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) used to treat HIV in recent years, backed by solid funding commitments, has given millions of people in poor countries a new lease on life. This is the case for tens of thousands of people living with HIV/AIDS in Malawi’s southern Thyolo district. Here, Olesi Ellemani Pasulani, clinical officer for Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) at the Thyolo District Hospital, shares his perspective on how improved access to care has changed the lives of people living with HIV/AIDS and the healthcare workers who treat them.

Today, the good news is that four million HIV-positive people are alive on antiretroviral therapy (ART). The bad news is that MSF teams working to treat HIV/AIDS are witnessing worrying signs of waning international support to combat HIV/AIDS.

Johannesburg/New York, November 5, 2009 — A retreat from international funding commitments for AIDS threatens to undermine the dramatic gains made in reducing AIDS-related illness and death in recent years, according to a new report released today by the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

“I understand what other patients are going through because, after all, I am also a patient. I take a minimum of 15 pills each day just to fight against drug-resistant TB."

MSF doctor Hermann Reuter works in a tuberculosis (TB) project in a rural district of Swaziland called Shiselweni.

Swaziland in Southern Africa is on the brink of a major health crisis due to the killer twin epidemic of HIV-AIDS and TB.

A week since the campaign was launched, well over 7,000 e-mails have been sent to the drug companies by supporters from Japan to Mexico, Myanmar to Burkina Faso.

New York/London, September 30, 2009 – The international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) today called on nine of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies to help accelerate the availability of new treatments for millions of people living with HIV/AIDS, by pooling their patents on a list of key HIV medicines.

MSF Nurse Colette Kerr describes her experience in Busia, a rural district in western Kenya, where MSF runs an HIV/AIDS project. Kerr oversaw the prevention of mother-to-child transmission program for pregnant women and new mothers.

MSF Nurse Colette Kerr describes her experience in Busia, a rural district in western Kenya, where MSF runs an HIV/AIDS project. Kerr oversaw the prevention of mother-to-child transmission program for pregnant women and new mothers.

In the developing world, HIV/AIDS is an increasingly threatening emergency. Shortages of appropriate drugs and diagnostics are now joined by new challenges. Funds for programs have dried up, even though much-needed newer drugs are priced beyond the reach of most people.

When drug companies put their patents into a patent pool, they still get their royalties, while other companies use the patents to make cheaper drugs. Everyone wins.

With a dire need for newer medications, a shortfall in funding and no increases on the horizon, the AIDS emergency in the developing world is far from over. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) spoke out at the International AIDS Society Conference held in July in Cape Town, South Africa, to push for urgent action.

An HIV vaccine trial in Thailand involving 16,000 volunteers showed potentially promising results as transmission of the virus was cut by a third. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) welcomes the initiative as it opens up a new chapter in HIV vaccine research.

Indian authorities have rejected patent requests from United States pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences for two life-saving HIV/AIDS drugs, Tenofovir and Darunavir, as they were considered to be in infringement of the patent law.

With approximately 930,000 infected persons, Malawi has one of the world's highest HIV/AIDS rates. But although 211 national facilities were offering free antiretroviral medicine (ARVs) as of late 2008, only 50 percent of patients had access to the drugs and another 290,000 were still awaiting treatment. To combat this alarming health emergency, MSF is applying a new decentralized HIV approach that brings treatment closer to the patients.

During the rainy season, which would coincide with the hunger gap—the time just before the next harvest when food stocks dwindle—we would treat more than 1,200 severely and moderately malnourished children every week. Because of this great need, we refused to allow anything to interfere with our activities.

Marielle Bemelmans, MSF head of mission in Malawi, explains how universal access to HIV drugs works in Malawi and why the high prices of new HIV/AIDS drugs puts this great achievement in peril.

Cape Town, July 20, 2009 – Stagnation in HIV/AIDS funding and the high cost of new medicines are putting the lives of thousands of poor patients at risk, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) warned today at the 2009 International AIDS Society conference in South Africa . Patients needing new drug regimens will return to AIDS “death row.” While the lack of access to antiretroviral treatment for seven million people remains unaddressed, inadequate financing now further threatens treatment scale-up.

Over three million people living with HIV/AIDS in the developing world receive antiretroviral therapy (ART). However, the medicines and diagnostic tools available are inadequate to respond fully to their needs. In addition, seven million people are in need of treatment and are still waiting for access.

Cape Town, July 17, 2009 - Recent disruptions in the supply of anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs and other essential medical items in at least six African countries are putting HIV patients’ lives at risk, said the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) today, in advance of the International AIDS Society Conference in Cape Town, South Africa.

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has announced the closure of HIV/AIDS-treatment projects in Transnistria, a breakaway region of Moldova unrecognized by the international community.

UNITAID and the Clinton Foundation’s HIV/AIDS Initiative (CHAI) have just announced price reductions negotiated with generic companies for 41 adult and pediatric antiretroviral formulations to treat HIV/AIDS. This is welcome news which must be interpreted with caution, says international medical humanitarian organization, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

"Condoms are the key to safe sex. They not only prevent HIV but many sexually transmitted infections. And they prevent unwanted pregnancies. Sexual intercourse is a reality of the human condition. Promoting only abstinence to control the HIV/AIDS epidemic is a naïve and unrealistic approach. A more attainable goal is to ensure that people behave in a safe way."

Amsterdam/Chisinau, February 24, 2009 — Today, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) called on the Moldovan and Transnistrian authorities as well as the international donor community to pay more attention to the health needs of the population of Transnistria.

Harare/Johannesburg/New York, February 17, 2009 —Zimbabwe's humanitarian crisis continues to rapidly deteriorate, causing appalling suffering, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) warned today. The organization’s medical teams have now treated almost 45,000 people for cholera, an estimated 75 percent of the total number of cases in the current outbreak, and the crisis is far from over.

MSF welcomes recognition by UK drugs company GlaxoSmithKline that patents act as a barrier to research and development and that patent pools offer new ways to stimulate research into neglected diseases. Promises now need to be turned into action.

Every year, tuberculosis (TB) kills about 1.7 million people and 9 million develop active disease. TB is on the rise in countries with high HIV rates, particularly in southern Africa, which has the highest rates of HIV. Tuberculosis is one of the leading causes of death for people living with HIV/AIDS, and in the past 15 years, new TB cases have tripled in countries with high HIV prevalence. People living with HIV/AIDS are up to 50 times more likely to develop active TB in a given year compared with HIV-negative individuals, and roughly a third of the 33 million people living with HIV/AIDS worldwide are infected with latent TB. Yet, in 2006 less than one percent of people living with HIV/AIDS were screened for TB.

Massive forced civilian displacements, violence, and unmet medical needs in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Iraq, Sudan, and Pakistan, along with neglected medical emergencies in Myanmar and Zimbabwe, are some of the worst humanitarian and medical emergencies in the world, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) reported today in its annual list of the “Top Ten” humanitarian crises.

Geneva, December 4, 2008—International medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) welcomes the ruling by the Madras High Court instructing India's patent office to hear the opponents to the patent application for valganciclovir by the pharmaceutical company Roche.

Geneva, November 28, 2008 - MSF calls on governments and donors to roll out existing tests faster and to considerably increase the use of a pediatric version of a standard fixed-dose combination drug – a pill that combines all needed drugs in one tablet.

There are an estimated 2.1 million children living with HIV/AIDS, according to UNAIDS, 90 percent of whom are from sub-Saharan Africa.  Only 10 percent receive any treatment for the disease.

A family in Homa Bay, Kenya describes the benefit of a fixed dose combination antiretroviral for their son's HIV/AIDS treatment.  Of the 22 antiretroviral drugs currently available, eight are not approved for pediatric use and seventeen are not available in pediatric formulations. There is a clear and urgent need for more research and development of child-friendly antiretroviral drugs. 

Thousands of people are needlessly dying due to a severe lack of lifesaving HIV/AIDS treatment in Myanmar. Unable to continue shouldering the primary responsibility for responding to one of Asia’s worst HIV crises, MSF insists that the government of Myanmar and international organizations urgently and rapidly scale-up the provision of antiretroviral therapy.

Geneva, Amsterdam, Yangon, November 25, 2008—Thousands of people are needlessly dying due to a severe lack of lifesaving HIV/AIDS treatment in Myanmar, said the international medical humanitarian organization MSF in a report released today. Unable to continue shouldering the primary responsibility for responding to one of Asia’s worst HIV crises, MSF insists that the government of Myanmar and international organizations urgently and rapidly scale-up the provision of antiretroviral therapy (ART).

MSF presented medical data from its HIV/AIDS treatment programs around the world at the 17th International AIDS Conference (IAC) in Mexico City

Mankaza, 15, tried to get away inconspicuously from the other girls at her boarding school in southern Zimbabwe. But before she could leave the hall some of her classmates started jeering and soon all joined in, "Where are you going Mankaza? Mankaza's going to juice up, Mankaza's going to juice up!"

Rio de Janeiro/New York, September 2, 2008 – The Brazilian Patent Office has rejected a patent application by Gilead on the drug tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF), in a move that could increase access to a key HIV/AIDS medicine across the developing world, says international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

MSF is now treating close to 40,000 HIV-positive people in Zimbabwe, over 7,000 of whom are children. It is estimated that there are about 2 million HIV-infected people in the country. The virus can be transmitted to the fetus during the pregnancy through the placenta, though there is a higher risk of infection during delivery when the baby comes into contact with the mother’s blood.

Mexico City, August 5, 2008 —Treating children and adolescents living with HIV effectively in resource-limited settings is possible, but adapted medicines, diagnostic tools, and treatment strategies are urgently needed to prevent more deaths, according to Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

Mexico City, 3 August 2008 – On the opening day of the XVII International Aids Conference, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) warned of the deadly impact that the lack of health care workers is having on AIDS treatment and care in southern Africa.  In a satellite meeting called “Mind the Gaps” organized by MSF here today, experts described the scope and impact of the health care worker shortage as well as the critical need to increase government and donor commitment to taking immediate concrete steps to retain and support health care workers now.

HIV/AIDS treatment and management are essential components of many MSF programs worldwide. Currently MSF provides antiretroviral therapy (ART) for over 140,000 patients in 27 countries, with about 10,000 of those patients being children. In conjunction with this year’s International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, this document presents MSF’s current “state of play” in providing quality care to people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in resource-limited settings.

Dr Eric Goemaere, medical co-ordinator for MSF in South Africa, discusses diagnosing and managing HIV-TB co-infection.

Karen Day, Pharmacist Coordinator for MSF’s Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines, provides an overview of some of the key issues in the 11th edition report ‘Untangling the Web of Antiretroviral Price Reductions.’

Elena Alonso, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) medical advisor for HIV/AIDS-TB programs.

Dr. Mit Philips of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) answers questions about how the lack of health care workers threatens further roll-out of HIV/AIDS treatment to those in urgent need of it in sub-Saharan Africa.

Dr. Peter Saranchuk was the medical coordinator at MSF’s HIV/AIDS project in Lesotho. Here, he explains the reasons behind the dangerous relationship between TB and HIV.

Ellen ‘t Hoen, Policy Advocacy Director of MSF’s Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines, outlines how the a patent pool would work and what benefits it could bring.

For patients with advanced HIV, complications from CMV retinitis— most notably blindness—are preventable. However, screening and treatment are out of reach in many places where CMV retinitis is prevalent.

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a member of the herpes virus family that was a familiar cause of blindness and death in patients with advanced AIDS in Western countries in the 1980s and 1990s, when it occurred in roughly one-third of patients with AIDS.

Geneva/Bangkok, December 1, 2007 – Failure to diagnose and treat cytomegalovirus retinitis (CMV) in people with AIDS is leading to unnecessary blindness, according to a paper published today in the journal PLoS Medicine. The authors found in pilot studies that CMV retinitis, which has been dramatically reduced in wealthy countries since the advent of antiretroviral therapy, occurred in 23%, 27%, and 32% of patients with advanced AIDS in Cambodia, Myanmar and Thailand respectively. By training clinicians to screen and taking steps to make the best treatment affordable, the authors argue that CMV diagnosis and treatment can easily be integrated into existing AIDS treatment programs.

Sydney/New York, July 24, 2007 – New pediatric treatment data presented by the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) at the 4th International AIDS Society conference in Sydney, Australia, demonstrate good clinical results but sub-optimal virological outcomes. The results confirm concerns about the effectiveness of treating children without access to appropriate and adapted pediatric AIDS drug formulations.

Every minute, a child under the age of 15 is infected with HIV. AIDS kills over 1,000 children every day, and claims roughly half a million young lives every year.

Johannesburg, South Africa, May 24, 2007 — The dire lack of health care workers in southern Africa is threatening efforts to expand access to HIV/AIDS treatment, warned the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in a new report issued today. The report covers four southern African countries–Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique and South Africa–where more than one million people still need life-saving antiretroviral treatment but do not have access to it. Lack of action will result in unnecessary illness and death.

Press teleconference on Thailand's compulsory licensing of an HIV/AIDS treatment, Abbott's response, and the coming crisis in availablity of second-line HIV drugs in developing countries.

MSF began treating MDR-TB in Kenya in May of 2006. With four patients enrolled at "Blue House" and three on the shores of Lake Victoria in a town called Homa Bay, MSF remains the only provider of MDR-TB treatment in the country today. Around Nairobi alone, it is estimated there are about 50 cases, but there is no capacity to absorb them.

Los Angeles, March 1, 2007 — New data released by the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) at the 14th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) in Los Angeles this week demonstrates good clinical outcomes for second-line antiretroviral therapy (ART) in resource-poor settings. Newer medicines needed for second-line regimens, however, remain unaffordable and largely unavailable in affected countries, and adapted diagnostic tools needed to appropriately monitor lifelong treatment are missing.

In late December 2006, after four years of treating people living with HIV/AIDS in Coatepec, MSF transferred that responsibility to the country's public health agencies. Preparation for the handover had been underway for more than a year. The transfer was implemented gradually, concluding only when the agencies taking responsibility were ready to ensure continuity of care. MSF continues to provide treatment to people living with HIV/AIDS in Puerto Barrios and Guatemala City.

MSF expresses concern over the US intervention in the decision by the government of Thailand to issue a compulsory license on patents for the AIDS drug efavirenz, and explains why the US government should refrain from such actions.

New York,  November  29, 2006  - AIDS treatment in the developing world will not be sustainable unless international institutions get serious about the high cost of newer medicines, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) warned today.

Bangkok/New York, November 29, 2006 — Thailand today for the first time announced it will issue a compulsory license for use by the government to improve access to a key HIV/AIDS medicine, efavirenz. The international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) welcomes this important move and urges the government to issue such licenses for the production of other essential medicines.

Guatemala/Geneva, November 3, 2006 - On the occasion of the board meeting of the Global Fund to Fight against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, in Guatemala City, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is calling for increased efforts from the government of Guatemala and the Global Fund to maintain treatment of patients living with HIV/AIDS and to expand coverage to those not currently under treatment in Guatemala, where an estimated 60 percent of people living with HIV/AIDS requiring treatment do not receive it, according to UNAIDS.

With approximately 9 million people developing active tuberculosis (TB) every year and 1.7 million deaths annually, TB is far from under control. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection dramatically increases the risk of developing active tuberculosis and is driving the TB epidemic in Africa.

Toronto, Canada, August 15, 2006 — Two new studies released by Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) at the XVI International AIDS Conference in Toronto this week demonstrate good outcomes in antiretroviral treatment (ART) of children living with HIV/AIDS across a wide array of resource-poor settings, but also show that pediatric drug formulations are excessively overpriced, costing up to six times more than adult equivalents.

Canada was the first G8 country to amend its national laws to implement the World Trade Organization’s August 30th decision, allowing generic versions of patented drugs to be manufactured and exported under compulsory license.

Bangkok/New York, July 6, 2006 – People living with HIV/AIDS in developing countries in urgent need of an improved version of the AIDS drug lopinavir/ritonavir continue to be denied access to it by its sole manufacturer, Abbott Laboratories, according to the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

After four years of seeking permission to bring HIV/AIDS treatment to China's Henan province, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has found the door firmly shut by the provincial authorities. Henan is particularly hard hit by HIV; between the mid-1980s and mid-1990s many poor farmers got infected in a poorly run commercial program for blood donation and transfusion.

New Delhi, May 10, 2006 – The medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is today expressing its support for Indian civil society groups in their battle against a patent application by Gilead Sciences for the key AIDS drug tenofovir (tenofovir disoproxil fumarate, TDF). People living with HIV/AIDS in India opposed the patent application yesterday on the grounds that the drug consists of a previously known compound, and should not be considered an invention according to India's Patent Act.

Caring for children with HIV/AIDS is charged with obstacles. The struggle begins with doctors not being able to tell whether antibodies found in a small baby's blood are from the mother or whether they suggest the child itself is infected with the virus. Frustrated with the situation, MSF has been cooperating with scientists working on a new technology.

The HIV/AIDS pandemic has vividly brought to the world's attention the fact that an increasing percentage of the world's population lives without access to essential medicines. The access crisis is twofold — on the one hand, crucially needed diagnostics, drugs, and vaccines that safely and efficiently respond to diseases affecting the world's poorest do not exist; and on the other, patients living in poverty cannot afford their own treatment, as those medicines that do exist are priced beyond their reach.

New York, April 27, 2006 – Abbott Laboratories is failing to make an important new AIDS drug formulation available to people in developing countries, according to the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). MSF urges the Chicago-based drug company to take immediate steps to make the heat-stable tablet version of lopinavir/ritonavir, marketed as Kaletra, available outside of the United States. MSF also calls on Abbott to fill an order for the medicine for 400 MSF patients in nine countries that the organization placed over one month ago on March 15, 2006.

New Delhi/Geneva, March 30, 2006 — Today, the Indian Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (INP+), the Manipur Network of Positive People (MNP+), and the Lawyers' Collective HIV/AIDS Unit officially submitted their opposition to a patent application filed in the Kolkata patent office by Glaxo Group Limited for Combivir, a fixed-dose combination of two AIDS drugs (zidovudine/lamivudine, or AZT/3TC). The opposition is based on technical and health grounds. If India grants a patent on this AIDS drug, it will set a precedent that will hamper access to affordable AIDS medicines worldwide.

Geneva, March 28, 2006 — As the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNAIDS release a long-awaited report on their 3x5 AIDS treatment initiative, and call for universal access to AIDS drugs, the medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is expressing concern that not enough is being done to make sure that the drugs needed to expand and sustain treatment are accessible to those who need them.

Transcript of a press teleconference on the lack of availability of Abbott's new heat-stable Kaletra in African countries.

Lagos/Berlin/New York, March 15, 2006 — People living with HIV/AIDS in developing countries can't get new and/or improved drugs that can make a critical difference, said the medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). MSF also said that it refuses to accept the standard practice of drug companies to market less adapted drugs to African, Asian and Latin American countries while reserving improved or newly developed drugs for countries that can pay more. For this reason MSF is placing an order directly with the worldwide headquarters of Abbott Laboratories in Chicago for a new heat stable version of the drug called lopinavir/ritonavir, which the company right now only sells in the US at a price of US$9,687 (average wholesale price) per patient per year.

Denver, CO, February 7, 2006 — As AIDS experts gather this week in Denver to discuss advances in treatment at the 13th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI), Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is concerned that innovations from years ago are still not reaching people in developing countries. More than three years after Gilead Sciences first announced its "Access Program" for tenofovir, this key antiretroviral medicine remains largely unavailable in developing countries.

Abuja, Nigeria, December 8, 2005 - Newer AIDS drugs and formulations of existing drugs are urgently needed in Africa but are not available because brand name companies are choosing not to sell them and there are no generic versions, according to the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

Abuja, Nigeria, December 6, 2005 - Having to pay for HIV/AIDS care increases the risk of treatment failure, according to new research from Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) presented this week at the International Conference on AIDS and Sexually transmitted infections in Africa (ICASA), in Abuja, Nigeria.

One of the reasons that half of all children with HIV/AIDS die before the age of two is that pharmaceutical companies are not making child-friendly versions of their anti-AIDS drugs.

Millions of children with HIV/AIDS die every year because there are no appropriate diagnostic tools and pediatric antiretroviral (ARV) formulations that are affordable. 95% of these children live in poor countries. In the West, infections from mother to child can be effectively prevented, and ARV therapy gives children born with HIV an excellent chance of reaching adulthood.

Felipe Garcia de la Vega is a pediatrician who first worked with MSF in Peru in 1997, followed by missions in Burma and Mozambique. Since May 2005, he has been the HIV/AIDS & TB Advisor to MSF's Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines in Geneva. He speaks about treating children with HIV/AIDS.

Nairobi/New York, November 28, 2005 — One of the reasons that half of all children with HIV/AIDS die before the age of two is that pharmaceutical companies are not making child-friendly versions of their anti-AIDS drugs. Today, Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) calls on companies to make easy-to-use versions for children of all their AIDS medicines to help prolong and improve the lives of more children with HIV/AIDS. There is also a desperate need for simple and affordable AIDS tests for babies in resource-poor settings.

Of all the challenges Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) faces treating HIV/AIDS in China, perhaps none is as daunting as the pervasive stigma surrounding the disease

Monique Wanjala, training facilitator in the MSF program in Kibera, Nairobi, has been on antiretroviral therapy since early 2004. She speaks about her life and her work with MSF.

Accompanied by Waweru, an HIV counselor, a woman walks into a consultation room of the Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) 'Blue House' clinic in Nairobi. She is carrying a child and looks weary. Her loosely tied headscarf looks as if it is about to fall off. She has her hands full with a traditional woven bag–a "kiondo"–hanging from her shoulder and her three-year-old son, Titus, all swaddled up on her arms.

Children account for around 350 of the 5,000 people living with HIV/AIDS who are receiving antiretroviral (ARV) treatment through Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Chiradzulu, Malawi. Since last spring, children have had their own appointment day. Grouping the children in a pediatric clinic means that they receive more appropriate medical and psychological care.

On June 29, MSF inaugurated a new medical clinic in Silanga, in the heart of the Kibera slum on the outskirts of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. It is the third HIV/AIDS treatment clinic opened by MSF in Kibera, the largest slum in Africa with an estimated 1.2 million inhabitants.

Rio de Janeiro/Geneva, 27 July 2005 – Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is successfully treating an increasing number of children living with HIV/AIDS, according to data from MSF treatment programs presented at a "late breaker" session at the 3rd International AIDS Society Conference in Rio de Janeiro. MSF's clinical outcomes are good despite the fact that currently available diagnostic tests and medicines are poorly adapted for children.

Every minute of every day, a child under the age of 15 is infected with HIV. AIDS kills 1,400 children every single day, and claims more than half a million young lives every year.

Janthimala Price, a midwife from Australia, spent 20 months at the Arua Hospital AIDS Program in rural northwestern Uganda. The program was set up in July 2002 by the Arua Regional Referral Hospital Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) to treat HIV/AIDS patients.

January 27, 2005 - The World Health Organization released its "3 by 5" progress report on January 26, 2005 at the Davos World Economic Forum congratulating itself on progress made in the drive to fight the HIV pandemic. But only 700,000, or 12%, of the nearly six million people in need of antiretroviral (ARV) treatment in developing countries have access to it today. Looking at these figures Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), who provides ARV treatment to more than 25,000 patients in 27 countries, comes to the exact opposite conclusion.

The benefits of treatment are clear. Patients are doing well: their immune systems are stronger, they are gaining weight, and are able to live fuller and longer lives.

Dr. Rowan Gillies
President, Medecins Sans Frontieres International Council
Bernard Hirschel
Head, HIV/AIDS Division
Geneva University Hospital

MSF and Bernard Hirschel respond to Carol Adelman's Wall Street Journal Opinion Piece

Durban/Brussels, 13 December 2004: Starting from Tuesday, 14 December 2004, an alliance of renowned experts, institutions and non-governmental organizations will launch the ‘Free by 5’ declaration and present it to the World Bank, aid donors, the World Health Organization (WHO), UNAIDS and many other parties. While the WHO aims to have three million HIV-positive people on Anti-Retroviral (ARV) treatment in the course of next year, the declaration points out that ARVs and associated care need to be provided free of charge to all patients in developing countries.

A response from Roger Teck, MD, Doctors Without Borders physcian in Thyolo, Malawi to a San Francisco Chronicle op-ed article.

In the Southeast Asian country hardest hit by HIV/AIDS, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is battling the disease with life-prolonging antiretroviral medication. But in Cambodia, there are still obstacles that must be overcome before AIDS treatment is available for all.

New York/Geneva, November 30, 2004 - Donor governments and countries hardest hit by HIV/AIDS must take immediate steps to address today's treatment deficit emergency and the gaps in research and development to fight the pandemic, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) urged on the eve of World AIDS Day 2004.

By Eric Goemaere, Special to The Times

Malawi's health infrastructure is weak and has so far been unable to cope with this burden of chronic illness. Comprehensive HIV care and support, including HAART (Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy), is urgently needed.

MSF launched an HIV/AIDS treatment project in Villa El Salvador, a poor suburb of Lima with a population of 350,000.

Arua, Uganda, 29 July 2004 - The Arua Hospital AIDS Program today commemorated two years of providing free access to antiretroviral (ARV) treatment for nearly 1,100 people living with HIV/AIDS in Arua, a rural region in northwestern Uganda. The community celebration included dramatic performances as well as visits by Jim Muhwezi, Minister of Health of Uganda, Stephen Lewis, UN Special Envoy on HIV/AIDS in Africa, and others. A partnership between the Arua Regional Referral Hospital and the international medical humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), the Arua Hospital AIDS Program also marked the occasion by releasing a clinical monitoring report showing how well patients are responding to ARV therapy and pointing to the urgent need for expansion of access to free ARV treatment in Uganda.

July 29, 2004, STEPHEN LEWIS, UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa:  I am honored to share this time with all of you. I've never been at such a celebration before. I've spent the last 3 years of my life traveling through Africa, observing the situation of HIV and AIDS, and I've never been at such a moment of triumph, and I congratulate you for it. It will obviously allow me to tell the world what is happening here in Arua. I'm especially happy to be here at the invitation of the Arua Regional Hospital, and Dr. Olaro, and, of course, colleagues from MSF. I am a Canadian. I have watched MSF in many parts of the world and in my own country. In my view, MSF is probably the most principled and impressive nongovernmental organization on the planet, and it is a pleasure they are here.

In Arua, MSF now provides medical care for nearly 3,000 people living with HIV/AIDS. In July 2004, MSF collected testimonies from patients undergoing treatment about their experiences living with HIV/AIDS before and since receiving treatment.

International pharmaceutical industries and governments are failing to develop and produce AIDS medicines and diagnostic tools suited to children, claimed Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières(MSF) today at the XV International AIDS Conference in Bangkok.

Bangkok, 12 July 2004 - Treatment of people living with HIV/AIDS with antiretroviral medicines (ARVs) is effective, even for patients at advanced stages of the disease living in resource-poor settings, according to new clinical data released by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) today at the XV International AIDS Conference in Bangkok. Simplification of treatment, including use of three-in-one fixed-dose combinations (FDCs) of ARVs, has allowed MSF to rapidly scale up its AIDS treatment programs from 1,500 patients in 10 countries to 13,000 patients in 25 countries over two years. But the organization also reported that significant challenges remain, including the lack of affordable second-line drugs and pediatric formulations.

Since May 2001, three HIV/AIDS clinics in the three day-hospitals in Khayelitsha have been offering antiretroviral therapy to people with AIDS who need treatment.

Although there are many challenges to scaling up AIDS treatment in resource-limited settings, MSF has some key concerns related to the PEPFAR policy on procurement of medicines.

To request that space be added to the meeting agenda for the presentation of actual field experience using FDCs, including clinical outcomes, and the identification of concrete strategies for increasing access to affordable FDCs.

More than sixteen months after the multinational pharmaceutical company Merck & Co. announced that it would reduce the price of its first-line AIDS drug Stocrin (efavirenz, EFV) to less than $1 per day in developing countries, the offer has failed to materialize.

Bangkok, Thailand, February 13, 2004 - The recent court victory of two Thai people living with HIV/AIDS against a multinational pharmaceutical company is described in an article published in today's Lancet medical journal.

In Khayelitsha township, a poor area near Cape Town, Eric Goemaere, MD, head of MSF in South Africa, works with colleagues and local AIDS advocacy groups to bring antiretroviral (ARV) treatment to those who need it and to push the country's government to do much more.

Volunteer social worker Alain Rias is helping MSF provide treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS in Honduras.

From Thailand to South Africa, MSF field projects still struggle to overcome cost barriers associated with antiretroviral medicines and treatments for common HIV-related opportunistic infections.

According to the Joint United Nations Program on AIDS (UNAIDS), 95% of the world's 36 million people with HIV/AIDS live in the developing world. Seventy per cent of adults and 80% of children with HIV/AIDS live in Africa.

MSF currently operates or is implementing nearly 50 HIV/ AIDS projects in over 25 countries.

It took coming to South Africa as an MSF volunteer for me to understand that the horror of apartheid had not disappeared. A new scourge, AIDS, had appeared in its place.

In this issue of Alert, several MSF field projects present their insights on treating HIV/AIDS in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and Eastern Europe.

Pierre is a patient at the MSF/PRESICA HIV clinic in Yaoundé, the capital of Cameroon. Since January 2001, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has been running a pilot project providing antiretroviral (ARV) therapy to people living with AIDS. Pierre is one of the lucky few to receive this treatment, and he is beating the odds.