NAIROBI, 9 March 2010 (PlusNews) – Global funding shortfalls for fighting AIDS could make it impossible for developing countries to implement new World Health Organization treatment guidelines, activists have said.
WHO released new guidelines on antiretroviral therapy (ART) in December 2009, raising the CD4 count – a measure of immune strength – at which HIV-positive people should start ART from 200 to 350. Research has shown that starting ART earlier reduces the rate of death and opportunistic disease.
-WHO’s new recommendations are excellent in theory, but they did not give us a practical way of implementing the guidelines – already we have shortages of drugs in trying to put people with CD4s below 200 on treatment, said James Kamau, coordinator of the Kenya Treatment Access Movement.
-If WHO’s new recommendations are not implemented, the international community risks subsidising less expensive yet sub-standard care for developing countries, said Sharonann Lynch, MSF’s HIV/AIDS policy advisor, in a press release.
“Avoiding this will depend on the willingness of donors to make new commitments. Although this is not easy in today’s financial environment, donor countries cannot back away from supporting the promise of universal access to treatment made five years ago.”
