Decrease funding for AIDS

Health and AIDS

The fight against AIDS is also suffering the effects of the global economic crisis, which is to scam the solidarity of governments. A report by the Kaiser Family Foundation and UNAIDS indicates that investments to combat the disease fell 10% in 2010, jeopardizing plans for prevention and treatment.
This is the first time that decreases funding to combat HIV / AIDS since many rich countries decide to make a financial effort to control the infection in the world's poorest areas. "This raises questions about the future of the fight against the epidemic," the report said.
Of the 15 countries surveyed, seven-Australia, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, USA and Spain, contributed less money to this cause in 2010 than in previous years. The governments of some of these countries announced their decision to cut or freeze their contributions to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS and health, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the most important organization in this area, after the fraud detected.

Founds AIDS and Health

However, "AIDS is to invest in smart even in a difficult economic environment," says Michael Sidibe, UNAIDS Executive Director. "We must look beyond the short-term costs and recognize the long-term benefits. Donors should commit now and fulfill their promises to reduce costs in the future."
In all, 2010 is 6,900 million dollars raised for the fight against HIV / AIDS, compared with 7,600 million 2009, which were considered insufficient to maintain the policies of prevention, treatment, care and aid in the Third World .

This decrease of 740 million in investment is mainly explained by the decline in the contribution of the U.S., the world's largest donor by far. From an investment of 4,400 million in 2009, a year after Washington granted only 3,700, although as the report said, some funds committed for the last year will be distributed later under new models of collaboration established with the recipient countries and the health and AIDS.

"With U.S. funding delayed but not eliminated, the decrease in spending this year will be a temporary problem, but its impact on services will be real," stressed Drew Altman, president and CEO of the Kaiser Family Foundation.

People with HIV before age 10 years

Patients infected with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) age between 10 and 15 years faster than the normal population due to several factors, such as side effects of drugs used and the waste of the virus itself.

The acceleration of the normal physiological process of aging system of people with HIV is one of the subjects 'hot' specialists who study AIDS, explained Dr. Josep Maria Gatell, Chief of Infectious Diseases and AIDS of Hospital Clinic Barcelona . Gatell, along with Dr. Laura Waters, Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton (UK), and Dr. Xavier Forns, MD Consultant of Hepatology Clinic Hospital, presented the sixteenth edition of the International AIDS Symposium, to be held tomorrow Castelldefels (Barcelona).

According Gatell, antiretroviral therapy normalizes much infection in AIDS patients but it must analyze the patient's life, and that patients make an aging population and makes it "more quickly than that indicated by your ID" he explained. "As a result, have faster and more often age-related complications, such as cardiovascular disease, stroke or stroke-some varieties of cancer or a neuro-cognitive impairment.

HIV Health

As regards the treatment of infection, antiretroviral therapy is now becoming easier and better tolerated, added the specialist, but has indicated that it should be for life, representing an expenditure of between 7,000 and 8,000 euros year.

Asked if the economic crisis affect the continuity of these expensive treatments, the medical expert has held that "probably will ask us to take the greatest cost-efficiency", which is made possible by the score of existing drugs on the market treat AIDS.

In addition to premature aging of the HIV infected, the meeting will also address how to treat patients who also have hepatitis C is also a situation experienced by between 30% and 40% of AIDS patients in Spain.

Dr. Xavier Forn explained that in a few months have medications that can directly inhibit the life cycle of hepatitis C, and that associated with standard therapy for treatment of the disease, is expected to increase very significantly the cure rate.

Until now, getting existing treatments to cure between 40 and 50% of patients with hepatitis C, a rate that is expected to increase in some specific virus of this disease and who have not been treated previously.

People with HIV

Gatell noted that "the patient with HIV and hepatitis C are two problems which enhance each other, so care must be taken in parallel and simultaneously managing both diseases."

New drugs to combat hepatitis C will mean an added cost of between 6,000 and 8,000 per year although in this case Forns explained that "progress has been made in predicting the response of patients and in 12 weeks you can assess whether the disease is on the road to healing. "

In Spain, there are an estimated 130,000 people infected with HIV, of which 30% do not know that they are therefore more likely to transmit the virus to others.

This proportion is even higher in the former countries of Eastern Europe, where two of every three people infected do not know, so that neither medical nor take precautions to prevent further transmissions. This bag of people unfamiliar with the disease are responsible for the transmission of up to 70% of new cases, so that reasons of public health to improve diagnostic tests, as in the UK when it occurs a traffic accident.

The HIV epidemic is stabilizing in the world

Good news, one regular and one bad. All from the same data, which reveals the new UNAIDS report on the status of the epidemic in the world. In 2009, 2.6 million people became infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The good news is that are 19% less than those recorded in 1999, the regular is that, although infections down, do so at a slow pace. And the bad, the figure is still too high and the HIV epidemic.
In all live in the world 33.3 million people with HIV, a number almost identical, except for some adjustments, to the previous report, indicating that the epidemic is stabilizing. But within this dynamic stabilization we observed some changes. For example, in Central and Western Europe, North America and Central Asia there are signs that the virus is a resurgence among men who have sex with men, something that experts have long warned. On the positive side, in some African countries are seen less risky sexual practices that some years ago and the HIV epidemic.

HIV epidemic in the World

The data highlighted in the report given that 52% of people with HIV are women, a 'feminization' of the epidemic is also seen for years. And 68% of those infected live in sub-Saharan Africa, which continues to suffer more than any other region of the ravages of the virus, with more than 1.8 million new infections, more women than men last year and the HIV epidemic..
With regard to HIV transmission from mother to child can see that everyone involved in the fight against AIDS have begun to take this issue seriously. In 2009, the virus infected 370,000 children under five years, a high number but it represents 24% less than just five years ago. The extension of antiretroviral therapy has also reduced the number of AIDS-related deaths, which rose from 2.1 million in 2004 to 1.8 million in 2009. Along with the increased distribution of drugs, has also been a greater distribution of condoms, 10 million more than last year and the HIV epidemic..

HIV epidemic is stabilizing in the world

-22 In 33 countries are in Africa, HIV prevalence has declined by 25% in a decade. However, the same percentage which has increased the incidence of the virus in seven places: Armenia, Bangladesh, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Philippines and Tajikistan and the HIV epidemic..

But although there are more people receiving treatment and more countries are facing the epidemic successfully, we must not forget that in some places the virus continues to spread unchecked. This is the case in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, where the number of people with HIV has tripled in just a decade, reaching 1.4 million infected in 2009. Of this, 90% comes from Russia and Ukraine, the epicenter of AIDS in Europe. Injecting drug use and paid sex are the two mainstream pathways by which HIV enters the bodies of the inhabitants of these two countries, which have a high prevalence of AIDS in prisons and the HIV epidemic..

U.S. gives up its patent on AIDS drug

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) have announced that U.S. shared intellectual property rights of some drugs for HIV / AIDS with a patent pool that treatments designed to be accessible to the poorest.
The NIH is the first institution dedicated to research that joins this group of patents of drugs for HIV launched by UNITAID, a health financing system funded through a levy imposed on air tickets founded by Brazil, United Kingdom, Chiles , France and Norway in 2006 and the Patent on AIDS drugs..
UNITAID An official told Reuters in July that several pharmaceutical companies including Merck, Tibotec and Gilead were in advanced talks to join the pool.But others, among which is ViiV Healthcare-joint venture between GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer to develop drugs for HIV, have said they would prefer to carry out their own agreements with generic manufacturers in developing countries.
The NIH has several patents on medicines and treatments related to HIV / AIDS. The agreement announced refers to a class of drugs known as protease inhibitors, used primarily to treat resistant infections and the Patent on AIDS drugs.
"This license is evidenced by the U.S. government's commitment to the Common Fund for Drug Patents and aims to increase the availability of HIV drugs in emerging countries," said Francis Collins, director of the NIH. "We are now discussing other patents assigned to the Fund that could have a positive impact on the treatment of HIV / AIDS"

Patent on AIDS drugs

Philippe Douste-Blazy, chairman of UNITAID, has welcomed the gesture of the NIH and has urged other patent holders to follow suit. Other institutions, such as Doctors Without Borders, have also expressed their satisfaction with the U.S. decision.

"This demonstrates a serious political support patent pool to help developing countries and the fact that the NIH has announced its decision to review its entire archive of antiretroviral drugs with the intention of introducing other patents in the background is promising, "said Tido von Schoen-Angerer, director of the Campaign for Access to Essential Drugs NGOs and the Patent on AIDS drugs..
"But this gesture is not sufficient to allow production of a cheaper version of the drug. We need to add more. The responsibility lies with the pharmaceutical companies that own patents on these and other key drugs for AIDS," he added and the Patent on AIDS drugs..
About 33.4 million people worldwide living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS. The vast majority live in poor regions like Africa and Asia, where the drugs should be very cheap to allow those who need to acquireand the Patent on AIDS drugs..
UNITAID announced a plan to create a patent pool in December. The idea is to allow generic manufacturers to develop low-cost versions of new drugs by creating a system for holders of these rights can yield if technology in exchange for certain rights and the Patent on AIDS drugs.. Initiative is expected to save these countries U.S. $ 1,000 million annually.