Africa Access: Call for Information
AIDS Treatment News and other AIDS organizations are receiving more and more requests for assistance from organizations in Africa and elsewhere in the developing world, asking how they can be helpful for persons who are ill. We are planning to publish guides to available information in several areas:1. Nutritional, including correcting micronutrient deficiencies, and how to purify water if necessary. We will also investigate why the prices of vitamins and other micronutrients are usually very high in developing countries, and whether nonprofit buyers' clubs could reduce the price.
2. Prophylaxis of opportunistic infections, treatment of parasites, and other well-known, low-cost interventions--recognizing that the cost-benefit of these treatments can vary greatly by geographic area and other risk factors.
3. Drug-donation programs, which collect unused medications and provide them free to those who need them--including ethical guidelines for these programs. We recognize that this kind of drug donation is a stopgap; but in additional to helping some individuals, it can build working relationships among persons and organizations in different parts of the world, creating a base which may help larger treatment-access efforts become more effective.
4. Institutional programs for larger-scale access to modern, proprietary treatments, including antiretrovirals.
5. Generally useful information on traditional treatments used in treating HIV or its symptoms.
If you have information we should consider, please send it to John S. James, jjames@aidsnews.org, or P.O. Box 411256, San Francisco, CA 94141.
