iClinic - July 10, 2000
Marjolein Harvey
Results of the study, conducted by grassroots organisation AIDS for AIDS, will be reported on Thursday during a poster session at the conference.
"Our organisation has been distributing HIV/AIDS medicines to individuals in Latin America for three years," says Jesus Aguais, co-founder and president of AID for AIDS. "With the conclusion of our first study, it is clear that our efforts to collect unused medications in North America and then distribute them to our clients in Central America, South America and the Caribbean are extremely beneficial."
According to its analysis, AID for AIDS has distributed R14 million worth of antiretrovirals, prophylaxis and treatments to clients in 15 countries over the past 12 months.
Biannual follow-up lab reports - required of each client enrolled in the programme to ensure that donated medicines are being used safely and effectively and are not being redistributed - indicate that robust and durable viral load and CD4+ cells count responses are being seen in the vast majority of clients in the programme.
However, collecting follow-up lab reports has been a problem for AID for AIDS due to the high cost of blood-cell counts, viral load and chem screens, putting the programme out of reach of many people living with HIV/AIDS in the developing world.
Therefore, AID for AIDS is now looking to collaborate with other grassroots programmes, commercial laboratories and pharmaceuticals for better healthcare for more people.
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