AIDS treatment in Latvia is exceptionally expensive - report
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26.04.2010

Baltic Daily - Political/Social News
© 2010 Baltic News Service
RIGA, Apr 26, BNS - In many parts of the world, including Latvia, funding cuts for HIV and AIDS treatment can result in an increase of deaths from this disease; besides, the costs of HIV/AIDS treatment in Latvia are exceptionally high, said the new report from the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPC), published on Monday.
The report focuses on HIV/AIDS treatment in Latvia, as well as India, Kenya, Malawi, Swaziland and Venezuela.
Marcis Trapencieris, a researcher at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology at the University of Latvia, and Aleksandrs Molokovskis, a representative of the Alliance HIV.LV, said in the report that the costs of treating HIV and AIDS patients in Latvia compared to other middle-income countries were shockingly high.
According to estimates, treating one AIDS patient in Latvia this year costs the state 3,170 lats (EUR 4,510) and researchers believe this is due to the fact that the current treatment program is not using generic medicines.
The report also concluded that very few injecting drug users, who form one of the biggest risk groups, participated in HIV and AIDS treatment programs in Latvia. The authors explained that many primary care providers are reluctant to treat people living with HIV because they have insufficient or limited knowledge about HIV and the stigma associated with illicit drug use, or because of the lack of integration of HIV care and drug treatment services.
The authors concluded that the purchase and use of generic antiretrovirals should be the government's priority, given that it would greatly lower the government's costs per patient and create more flexibility in HIV/AIDS programming, and adequate funding must be made available to provide antiretroviral treatment free of charge to all in need.
Since many governments and international organizations, like the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, have significantly cut funding due to the global crisis, less and less AIDS patients in the world will have access to treatment.
The Fund would need 20 billion dollars over the next three years to help meet the health-related Millennium Development Goals, but the G8 nations and other donors are warning that raising even 13 billion dollars is a "huge stretch."
The ITPC underscored that due to insufficient funding the number of people who did not have access to HIV/AIDS treatment would increase.
"Governments, North and South, cannot afford to put the clock back and return us to the days when HIV was a death sentence," said Aditi Sharma of ITPC, coordinator of the report.
According to the UN, at the moment some 33 million people are infected with HIV globally, and 9.5 million AIDS patients do not receive the necessary medicines.
Riga newsroom, +371 6708 8611, zinas@bns.lv