Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2005. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
The New York Times - June 30, 2005
Lawrence K. Altman and Donald G. Mcneil Jr.
Officials of several health agencies fighting AIDS blamed problems in the drug supply chain and shortages of health workers.
At the same time, they expressed hope that the number of people dying of the disease annually could stop growing by next year.
About one million people in poor countries are receiving antiretroviral drugs, said Dr. Jim Yong Kim, director of the World Health Organization's AIDS department, meaning the program is not on track to reach the goal announced in late 2003. The agency set three million as its goal because it seemed to be a reasonable target that could inspire donors and poor countries to act quickly.
Donors have committed $27 billion over the next three years but have delivered only $9 billion, the health agencies said.
About 6.5 million of the 40 million people infected are so sick that they are within two years of death and need treatment immediately, officials said yesterday in a telephone news conference from Geneva, where the World Health Organization is based. For the first time, they included an estimate for desperately ill children - 660,000, a tenth of the total.
The number of people desperately in need of drugs has grown by about half a million since the treatment goal was announced.
Progress has bogged down for several reasons, health officials said. Many countries have small model treatment programs, often run by outside charities, but not full-scale national plans.
Problems with drug delivery have been greater than expected, including issues as simple as countries not guaranteeing locked warehouses and trucks for the drugs, which are valuable and toxic if misused. Poor countries have too few doctors, nurses and pharmacists.
But there are reasons for hope, Dr. Kim said. Asia and Africa have tripled the number of people being treated, and Mozambique has decided to train high school graduates as AIDS clinic workers, he said.
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