South Africa needs to treat more HIV-positive people with anti-retrovirial medicine if the World Health Organisation (WHO) is to meet its target of treating three million people by the end of the year. According to the medical journal The Lancet, the WHO’s ‘3 by 5’ target (3 million people by 2005) may not be reached as a result of insufficient finance, staff and commitment from key countries, including South Africa.  In an editorial this month, the journal says that there has been progress, with 720 000 people in developing countries getting treatment and three times the target number of medicine outlets in operation.  However, the financial resources allocated to the WHO programme are less than required and the number of staff deployed to the initiative is well below what it should be (only 112 WHO staff are deployed but the number should be closer to 400).


Other hold-ups are:
Only 30 out of the 50 countries targeted have established treatment goals.
Of the estimated 4 million people in Africa who need anti-retrovirals, only 325,000 (8%) were on treatment by December.

Despite huge successes in Uganda and Botswana, for example, with both countries already delivering anti-retrovirals to half their affected populations, the burden of disease remains great and the distribution of anti-retrovirals is poor in South Africa, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Ethiopia.

 

The Lancet comments that if the programme “had the political clout to influence South Africa alone to implement all its recommendations, where the necessary infrastructure largely exists, then the 3 million target would be more likely to be attained.  Without South Africa on board, with its 837 000 people affected by HIV/AIDS and its leadership position within Africa, 3 by 5 is but a pipe dream.”

SA Holds the Key to World HIV Target

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