Aids breakthrough as study says treatment should cost less

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/jul/20/aids-breakthrough-treatment-costless


Bill Clinton with school pupils in Matugga, Uganda. The former US president has hailed the results of the Clinton Foundation study. Photograph: Kasamani Isaac/AFP

Lack of money can no longer be considered a reason – or an excuse – for failing to treat all those with HIV who need drugs to stay alive, following game-changing work about to be published by the Clinton Foundation that shows the real cost is four times less than previously thought.

The striking findings of a substantial study carried out in five countries of sub-Saharan Africa are hugely important and will set a new hopeful tone for the International Aids Conference in Washington, which opens on Sunday. It will help make the argument for Barack Obama and other international donors to dig deeper into their pockets – because the cost of saving lives, slowing the spread of HIV and achieving the ambition of an Aids-free world is lower than anyone assumed.

The work by the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) shows that the total cost of treatment in health facilities – including drugs, lab tests, health workers' salaries and other overheads – comes to an average of $200 a patient a year across Ethiopia, Malawi, Rwanda and Zambia – four of the Aids-hit African nations studied. That rises to $682 in South Africa, which has higher salaries and lab costs.

Until now the generally accepted total cost of treating a patient for a year was an average of $880 – based on a study by the US president's emergency plan for Aids relief (Pepfar) released at the last International Aids Conference two years ago in Vienna.