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Note: This document is from the archive of the Africa Policy E-Journal, published
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Africa: Treatment Access Update, 2
Africa: Treatment Access Update, 2
Date distributed (ymd): 010419
Document reposted by APIC
Africa Policy Electronic Distribution List: an information
service provided by AFRICA ACTION (incorporating the Africa
Policy Information Center, The Africa Fund, and the American
Committee on Africa). Find more information for action for
Africa at http://www.africapolicy.org
+++++++++++++++++++++Document Profile+++++++++++++++++++++
Region: Continent-Wide
Issue Areas: +economy/development+ +health+
SUMMARY CONTENTS:
This posting contains a press release on next week's OAU
summit on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and other related infectuous
diseases, a commentary from the NY Commanity Advocacy Treatment
Working Group on the proposed UN statement of position on treatment
for the UN Special Session, and a brief update from BRIDGES Trade
newsletter on new World Trade Organization discussions on
intellectual property rights and drug patents.
An additional posting today has a brief Africa Action commentary by
director Salih Booker on the withdrawal of the drug company law
suit against South Africa. It also includes two documents from the
workshop on drug pricing held on April 8-11, 2001 in Hosbjor,
Norway.
+++++++++++++++++end profile++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
ECA Press Release No. 01/2001(ENGLISH)
ABUJA SUMMIT TO ENDORSE ADF 2000 CONSENSUS ON FIGHTING HIV/AIDS
Addis Ababa, 18 April 2001 (ECA) -- The African Development Forum
(ADF) Consensus and Plan of Action agreed in Addis Ababa in
December 2000 is to be endorsed by Africa's leaders next week, when
they convene in Abuja, Nigeria for the African Summit on HIV/AIDS,
Tuberculosis and other related infectious diseases (26 - 27 April).
More than 20 Heads of State are expected at the Summit, to be held
at the Abuja International Conference Centre. The Summit, to be
preceded by a Ministerial Technical meeting (24 - 25 April), is
being organised by the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in
collaboration with the Government of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria, the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), UNAIDS and other
key partners.
The Summit, first proposed by President Olusegun Obasanjo of
Nigeria, is being convened to focus Africa's leadership on
reversing the alarming rate of infection of HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis
and other related infectious diseases on the continent. Unlike
ordinary summits of the OAU, this gathering will include
participation from different stakeholder groups, including People
Living with HIV/AIDS, TB and other diseases. Africa's development
partners will also be represented at the Summit.
The Summit's objectives are to: translate the commitments made by
African leaders into social and domestic and external resource
mobilisation for prevention, care and treatment of the diseases and
sustainable programming of primary health care; and develop
strategies aimed at preventing and controlling the impact of the
pandemic on socio-economic development in Africa.
Among dignitaries attending the Summit will be Kofi Annan, the UN
Secretary-General, who has been at the forefront of the global
fight against HIV/AIDS, and who is placing a special emphasis on
Africa. Mr. Annan is scheduled to deliver an opening statement at
the Summit of Heads of State and Government on 25 April.
A number of UN senior UN officials are also expected in Abuja,
among them UNAIDS Executive Director Peter Piot, WHO
Director-General Gro-Harlem Bruntland, ECA Executive Secretary K.Y.
Amoako, and UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy. These
officials will participate in a panel on the 'Way Forward' (25
April).
ECA has been working closely with the OAU, UNAIDS and other members
of the Technical and Steering committees to ensure that the Summit
builds on previous efforts to develop a strong African response to
HIV/AIDS.
In particular, ECA has sought to mainstream the outcomes of ADF
2000, which the Commission organized around the theme "AIDS: The
Greatest Leadership Challenge", in conjunction with UNAIDS, UNDP,
UNICEF, The World Bank and other partners to serve as a launching
pad for a renewed commitment to more concerted action against
HIV/AIDS in Africa.
At ADF 2000, More than 1,500 African leaders and policy makers,
civil society organisations -- including people living with
HIV/AIDS and academia -- private sector and development partner
representatives addressed concrete roles and responsibilities for
leaders at all levels, towards galvanizing an African-led response
to the pandemic.
ADF 2000's Consensus and Plan of Action calls for a strong
involvement by all stakeholders in the fight against HIV/AIDS in
Africa, and articulates the commitments made by African
governments, the international community, civil society and other
stakeholders individuals to overcome the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Among
other things, the Consensus stresses that:
- Every individual must personally break the silence around the
norms and practices that fuel the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
- People living with HIV/AIDS stand at the centre of any community
efforts to overcome the pandemic. Their rights must be respected in
full and their leadership potential recognised.
- National leaders have a responsibility to create the conditions
for community mobilisation.
- A continental strategy for the essential and comprehensive care
and treatment of people living with HIV/AIDS is needed, including
a determined pan-African approach to the affordability of drugs.
- The international community should mobilise the necessary
resources to enable Africa to overcome the pandemic. Wherever
possible, assistance should be in the form of grants, not loans.
For more information on the African Summit, visit
www.oau-oua.org/afrsummit/index.htm
To read the ADF 2000 Consensus and Plan of Action, and for all
related theme papers, speeches, presentations, and other documents,
visit www.uneca.org/adf2000 or contact:
The Communication Team
Economic Commission for Africa
P.O. Box 3001 Addis Ababa Ethiopia
Tel: +251-1-44 50 98 or +251-1-55 30 98
Fax: +251-1-51 03 65; Cell: +251-9-20 17 94
E-mail: ecainfo@uneca.org
Web: http://www.un.org/depts/eca
April 10, 2001
From: NYC UNGASS [UN General Assembly Special Session] Community
Advocacy Treatment Working Group
[NOTE: THE NYC UNGASS Community Advocacy Treatment Working Group is
an ad-hoc group of individuals living with HIV and AIDS, community
advocates, HIV professionals, journalists, policy makers, and
concerned citizens who represent a broad sector of the HIV/AIDS
community.]
To: UNGASS Member States and Delegates
Re: Consensus Statement on Response to UNGASS Draft Declaration of
Commitment
posted on
http://www.egroups.com/group/breaking-the-silence,
March 16, 2000
by Sharonann Lynch <salynch00@earthlink.net>
NOTE: The following consensus statement limits its comments to the
section of the UNGASS Declaration of Commitment regarding Care and
Support (reprinted below). It directly addresses the UNGASS
Declaration's statement that prevention must be the mainstay of the
global community's efforts to address the AIDS epidemic.
From the draft UNGASS Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS (April
6, 2001) and the section dealing with care and support:
"Care and support are inseparable elements of an effective
response"
"By 2003, ensure that comprehensive care strategies are developed
to strengthen health care systems; provide access to affordable
medicines and drugs for those who need time; support individuals,
households and communities affected by HIV/AIDS; and address
factors affecting the provision of essential drugs, including
technical and system capacity, prices, international trade rules
and intellectual property rights;
"By 2003, ensure that national strategies are developed in close
collaboration with the international community and the private
sector to increase substantially the availability of essential
medicines for HIV, including antiretroviral therapy for people
with symptomatic HIV infection."
Response of UNGASS Community Advocacy Treatment Working Group:
The world's HIV-infected and - affected populations cannot wait
until 2003 for their countries to act. 1,300 people die of AIDS
every day. In two years time, the epidemic will have claimed
nearly 10 million lives. The UNGASS Declaration of Commitment
overlooks many measures which are of the utmost importance to
saving lives and preventing new infections.
As it stands, the United Nations Declaration of Commitment is
wholly inadequate with respect to treatment and care. Taking
immediate measures to improve access to care, treatment and
support should be of equal priority to prevention efforts in the
global response TO HIV/AIDS. The Declaration should be altered to
reflect the following:
TREATMENT IS PREVENTION
The Declaration of Commitment presents a false dichotomy between
prevention and treatment. Treatment and care services are known to
enhance prevention efforts and are efficient routes to many
prevention goals, including uptake of voluntary counseling and
testing, treatment of STDs, and condom use. The Declaration should
reflect that treatment and prevention are inextricably linked and
that:
- Treatment strengthens prevention efforts, expands local health
infrastructure, and improves overall delivery of care and support.
- Access to treatment is a known incentive for HIV testing, and
helps address stigma and discrimination against individuals living
with HIV, as well as denial associated with HIV.
- Effective treatment of HIV and sexually transmitted diseases, as
well as opportunistic infections in HIV-infected individuals helps
reduce their risk of HIV transmission. Member countries must commit
to developing programs which reflect the immense public health
impact - including reductions in new infections - of basic
treatment interventions such as treatment for STDs and
opportunistic infections.
- The Declaration must clearly state that access to care and
treatment are basic human rights, and must provide an expanded
definition of treatment and an outline of immediate steps that
every member country can take and will commit to taking to improve
care, treatment and support for those already infected with HIV.
The Declaration should set a specific timetable and specific
numeric targets for providing immediate access to antiretroviral
and OI therapy to the neediest individuals with HIV now, not in
2003, and should address criteria for selection of those who are
most likely to benefit. Priority must be given to individuals with
symptomatic HIV illness and late-stage AIDS. Since HIV treatment
is an incentive to HIV testing, any treatment initiatives will
also facilitate the identification of newly-exposed or recently
seroconverted individuals who are known to be at high risk of
transmitting HIV to others and could potentially benefit from
early access to short-course antiretroviral therapy that would in
turn represent an important prevention strategy.
AN EXPANDED DEFINITION OF TREATMENT
Treatment and care have many components. The current wording is too
broad and gives inadequate direction to member countries. As the
Health GAP Coalition has stated with regard to the Declaration:
"Generality is an excuse for inaction; abstraction is a
foreshadowing of failure."
The many interrelated aspects of disease management include:
treatment for STDs and opportunistic infections; palliative care;
nutrition; diagnostics (including HIV antibody tests, viral load
and CD4 T-cell counts), "best practice" clinical management of HIV
disease; education of communities about HIV treatment through
culturally-appropriate treatment literacy materials; and training
of physicians and health-care professionals. Many of these aspects
can be translated into concrete goals which member countries can
and should begin to pursue immediately, and not in 2003.
The Declaration should state that:
- Member states commit to outlining and implementing immediate and
clear action steps for increasing access to treatment and care,
with clear standards for action.
- While they recognize that access to antiretrovirals remains a
difficult challenge, member states must immediately begin to:
train physicians, health-care professionals and community
advocates in appropriate strategies for managing HIV/AIDS;
identify and take concrete steps to enhance the existing health
infrastructure of their countries for the introduction and
delivery of HIV-related medicines and care; identify and establish
national programs and successful community-based models of HIV
treatment; immediately establish mechanisms that will prioritize
the care and support individuals with sympomatic HIV or late-stage
AIDS and their families.
COMMUNITY REPRESENTATION
These goals cannot be met without the involvement and guidance of
the diverse communities of people with HIV and AIDS and other
members of Civil Society. It is imperative that people with
HIV/AIDS be offered representation at all levels of
decision-making with regards to access to care and treatment. This
includes full participation in the administration of any proposed
"global AIDS fund," participation member state UNGASS delegations;
and decisions by member states about resource allocation.
The Declaration should state that:
- Governments of member states must commit to work in equal
partnership with people with HIV/AIDS and Civil Society with
respect to the allocation of funds, financial and technical
resources for HIV prevention, treatment and care.
- Governments of member states must commit to transparency and
accountability in these partnerships.
AN END TO ECONOMIC AND TRADE BARRIERS
Allocation of new funds and resources for treatment and care is a
priority for all member countries. For developing nations crippled
by the burden of debt, this can only be accomplished by debt
cancellation and reallocation of these funds to programs for
HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care. The use of funds freed up
by debt cancellation can become an essential element in the
ability of developing countries to address the AIDS pandemic,
since it will free up needed internal national resources and make
it more possible for them to increase the effectiveness of their
response to AIDS and other health, education and civil issues. We
wish to emphasize the need for government transparency and civil
society participation in any reallocation of funds freed up by
debt cancellation.
The Declaration should also commit member states to:
- clearly address and, where necessary, remove trade barriers
that negatively impact on access to essential medicines for HIV,
including antiretroviral drugs;
- support the highest possible protection of public health in
international, regional, and national trade, patent, and
intellectual property laws, including TRIPS-compliant safeguards.
- support developing countries to provide the most affordable,
highest quality health care for their HIV-affected populations as
possible, using such mechanisms as generic production, compulsory
licensing and parallel importing of HIV medicines.
- develop patent legislation in accordance with these principles
and with a view to fulfilling the basic human right of each
citizen to health care.
- avoid using litigation or other pressures, particularly bilateral
ones, to prevent another country from measures designed to
implement the fundamental human right to health.
FOLLOW UP MEASURES & INDEPENDENT MONITOR
- The Declaration should address follow-up plans and steps that
member states will be required to take to fulfill their stated
commitment to this document of action, along with a timetable for
action.
- The Declaration should establish a clear mechanism for review of
the follow-up actions of member states, with clear standards for
evaluating their commitment to providing access to HIV treatment
and care for HIV-positive individuals.
- UN member states should establish an independent monitoring body
that would include HIV-positive individuals and other members of
Civil Society, to review the UNGASS Plan of Action and the
immediate, mid-and longer-term strategies of member states to
provide access to treatment to HIV-positive citizens and other
steps outlined in this document of commitment to action. Funding
and administration for this independent monitoring body should be
provided by the UN body and member states with a clear timetable
for action, clear standards and a clear mechanism for review.
BRIDGES Weekly Trade News Digest
BRIDGES Weekly Trade News Digest is published by the International
Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD),
http://www.ictsd.org, with technical support from the Institute
for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP). ICTSD is an independent,
not-for-profit organisation based at: 13, ch. des AnTmones, 1219
Geneva, Switzerland, tel: (41-22) 917-8492; fax: 917-8093.
Vol. 5, Number 13 10 April, 2001
TRIPS COUNCIL TO HOLD DISCUSSION ON ESSENTIAL MEDICINES
Following a request by Zimbabwe on behalf of the African Group at
the WTO, the WTO Council on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual
Property Rights (TRIPs) in its meeting on 2-6 April agreed to hold
special discussions on essential medicines during the next Council
meeting in June. The decision came in the wake of recent
accusations that the WTO impedes developing countries' access to
cheap drugs by protecting pharmaceutical patents (see BRIDGES, 20
February 2001;
http://www.ictsd.org/html/weekly/story5.20-02-01.htm).
Africa's request for special discussions on drugs
In its statement to the TRIPs Council, the African Group called for
a Special Session of the Council to address issues relating to
TRIPs, patents and access to medicines. In particular, the paper
said, the Session should aim to "provide legal clarity in the
interpretation and application of the relevant TRIPs provisions
which allow the adoption of certain measures to enable the
protection of health." The outcomes of the Session could feed into
the preparatory process of the fourth Ministerial Conference in
Qatar. The statement also stressed that the African Members were
not aiming to undermine or discourage investment into research and
development for new drugs. "Our challenge is to address the
question of affordable access to drugs in a manner that is fair
and equitable to all stakeholders," it said. The African Group
also acknowledged that the question of affordable drugs goes beyond
patenting and pricing and includes other issues, such as government
purchasing power and infrastructure, which lie outside the mandate
of the Council.
The TRIPs Council agreed to devote a full day to a special
discussion of intellectual property issues relevant to access to
medicines during the course of the next TRIPs Council meeting on
18-20 June. Furthermore, the WTO is co-sponsoring a workshop on
"Differential Pricing and Financing of Essential Drugs" with the
World Health Organization, which is currently being held in Norway
from 8 to 11 April. The workshop brings together representatives
from research-based and generic manufacturers, governments,
intergovernmental organisations, non-governmental organisations,
academics and consultants to provide an opportunity to exchange
views on these issues. BRIDGES Weekly will report on the outcomes
of this meeting in a forthcoming issue. In addition, the WTO has
released a fact sheet on TRIPS and pharmaceuticals, which outlines
the exceptions to patent rights under TRIPs of relevance to the
drugs issue (available at
http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/trips_e/trips_e.htm).
This material is being reposted for wider distribution by
Africa Action (incorporating the Africa Policy Information
Center, The Africa Fund, and the American Committee on Africa).
Africa Action's information services provide accessible
information and analysis in order to promote U.S. and
international policies toward Africa that advance economic,
political and social justice and the full spectrum of human rights.
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