Thailand shows how free access to life-saving HIV/AIDS drugs can be affordable
Disease/Infection News
Published: Wednesday, 16-Aug-2006

A new report on Thailand's experience of giving free anti-retroviral drugs (ART) to people living with AIDS suggests that even developing countries with few resources may be able to deliver the life-saving drugs on a large scale, according to the World Bank and the Thailand Ministry of Public Health.

Of the estimated 40 million people worldwide infected with HIV, UNAIDS says between 5 to 6 million could immediately benefit from ART; but currently only 700,000 people are being treated with the new therapy. In contrast, by May, 2006 Thailand was providing treatment for approximately 78 thousand AIDS patients, more than 90 percent of those in need of treatment.

The new report "The Economics of Effective AIDS Treatment: Evaluating Policy Options for Thailand" says that the country's ability to provide ART affordably to more than 80,000 Thais with AIDS is the result of highly effective prevention campaigns over previous years, a vast network of district level hospitals and rural health clinics with the capacity to provide widespread treatment, a strong NGO community that has worked closely with government on rolling out the expanded ART program, and the close involvement of people living with HIV/AIDS themselves.

"Thailand's ART program is a useful beacon for other developing countries which are looking at how to provide this treatment to people with advanced HIV," says Ana Revenga, co-author of the new report and a World Bank Lead Economist in its East Asia and the Pacific department. "We conclude that Thailand can afford universal treatment, and is rightly in the vanguard of developing countries seeking to provide antiretroviral therapy as the standard of care to large numbers of people with symptomatic HIV disease."

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