Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) - August 27, 2003
Twist in the tale: Letters in the latest issue of the journal Aids tell contrasting tales about HIV treatment in developing countries. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) writes that treatment can be delivered as effectively as in industrialised countries; another letter describes a private clinic in KwaZulu-Natal where constraints led to many patients receiving sub-optimal treatment.
Jean-Michel Tassie and colleagues from MSF outline the experience of the patients who started highly active antiretroviral treatment in seven projects across the developing world. Treatment was clearly effective in most of those who could tolerate it.
A contrasting picture emerges from a study that reviewed the records of a private primary care clinic in rural KwaZulu-Natal, where 72 patients were prescribed antiretrovirals between March 1999 and February 2002. Only 57 patients received anti-retrovirals. Of those, only 31, all with medical aid, were treated with triple therapy.
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