World Bank: ''Follow Thailand'' on Aids
Posted on Wednesday, August 16 @ 14:31:28 EDT by 157 |
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Anonymous writes "World Bank: ''Follow Thailand'' on Aids
Thailand is offering life-saving HIV drugs to more than 90 per cent of those in
need, bucking global trends and setting an example for other developing states,
the World Bank said today.
Thai programs show that even countries with few resources may be able to hand
out crucial antiretroviral therapy (ART) on a vast scale at low cost, a World
Bank report released at the 16th International AIDS Conference said.
“Thailand''s ART program is a useful beacon for other developing countries which
are looking at how to provide this treatment to people with advanced HIV,” said
bank economist Ana Revenga.
Around 6.8 million of the estimated 38.6 million people living with HIV
worldwide need ART, the World Health Organisation said today.
Only 1.66 million, or 24 per cent of those in need, are getting the treatment,
the United Nations agency said.
But Thailand has bucked the trend. By May this year it was providing treatment
for 78,000 AIDS patients, which is more than 90 per cent of those who need it,
according to the report, co-authored with the Thai Ministry of Public Health.
Its effort to help HIV patients has been boosted by the domestic manufacture of
an affordable ART which costs only $US30 per month, the report said.
“We conclude Thailand can afford universal treatment, and is rightly in the
vanguard of developing countries seeking to provide antiretroviral therapy as
the standard of care to large numbers of people with symptomatic HIV disease,”
said Revenga.
The fact Thailand can mount such an effort is thanks to its HIV prevention
program adopted in the early 1990s as the full horror of the disease became
clear, the World Bank said.
“We estimate, if they had not undertaken that program, they would have about 14
times as many cases and about 14 times as much expense,” Mead Over, a World Bank
economist and co-author of the report, said.
Over said Thailand might have saved $US43 in treatment costs for every dollar it
spent on prevention.
According to World Bank figures, Thailand would now be struggling against a
horrific HIV problem had it not acted so quickly.
The Thai government would have faced 7.7 million HIV cases and 850,000 AIDS
patients in 2005, the bank said.
China, India and other countries should closely study the Thai experience when
framing anti-HIV strategies, Over said.
Thailand has long been regarded as one of the most successful nations in
fighting HIV. Its health ministry said in January that 1478 people died from
AIDS between January and November in 2005, compared to 6,593 for the same period
in 2004.
The sharp drop in deaths was attributed to the increasing availability of
antiretroviral drugs.peThe World Bank said more than one million Thais had been
infected with HIV since the first case was reported in the country in 1984.
Despite its successes, Thailand still faces a high incidence of HIV among
high-risk groups, especially those that were not targeted in the past, including
male prostitutes and drug addicts.
But the recent availability of antiretroviral drugs has offered rays of hope for
sufferers and non-governmental organisations in the country, said David Wilson,
medical coordinator with Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) in
Thailand.
“I''ve seen the attitude of many of them change from hopelessness to optimism,”
he said.
“They want to share their positive experience of treatment with their friends
and so help others to access the medicines which have given them such new life.”
(Agencies)
http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/breakingnews.php?id=112275
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