Access to Better Treatment Dominates African AIDS Conference

Access to superior AIDS treatments, notably tritherapies, dominated talks Monday at the 12th International Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases in Africa (CISMA). Experts stressed that such treatments were vital for Africa, the continent experiencing 70 percent of global AIDS-linked deaths. In rich countries, the arrival of tritherapies in 1996 revolutionized AIDS treatment -- a phenomenon that has had virtually no effect in Africa given the costs involved. "Access to antiretrovirals is maybe a utopia but it is a necessary one," said Aliou Sylla, a doctor from Mali. "Don't start an ideological battle here. The antiretrovirals are an element of competence against AIDS, let us try and get them for free," he said to thunderous cheers.

The five-day AIDS conference, whose theme is "Community Solutions," formally opened in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, late Sunday and is also encouraging greater participation by individual companies in the fight against AIDS. UNAIDS said that in the absence of proper treatment, most HIV-positive Africans are not expected to survive the present decade. In their annual report released last month, UNAIDS and the World Health Organization said that in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Togo at least five percent of the population ages 15-49 has HIV or AIDS. Global AIDS conferences are held every two years, and the next will take place in Barcelona, Spain, in July.

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