African AIDS Campaigners Want More Money, Even Cheaper Drugs

More than 3 million people, including 600,000 children, died of AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa last year, according to UN figures. Activists speaking before the Sunday opening of the 13th International Conference on HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases in Nairobi welcomed the recent World Trade Organization agreement to make it easier for poor countries to access generic medicines, but said the agreement did not solve some major problems.

Jonathan Berger of the AIDS Law Project at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg said the Geneva deal left poor importing countries that could not manufacture their own drugs at the mercy of richer exporting countries because of the compulsory license requirement. "In many countries with a capability to manufacture generic drugs and export them, their patent laws may not provide for export of products under compulsory licenses, or may not allow for such licenses to be issued, or the political will may not exist."

Innocent Nyaruhirira, Rwanda's secretary of state in charge of AIDS prevention, said access to drugs would motivate people to come to clinics, "But the cost remains too high," underscoring the poverty of a continent where many live on less than a dollar a day.

In Botswana, where roughly 38 percent of adults have HIV/AIDS, life expectancy has plunged from 67 to 42 years. Bryad Ryder, spokesperson for the African Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Partnership, said: "We are finally seeing the response of the international community, and what we need now is funding from donor countries."

But Beryl Leach, spokesperson for Kenya Coalition for Access to Essential Medicines, warned, "Those who are expecting drugs to start flowing are in for a rude shock and disappointment."

In Zimbabwe, where 2,500 people die of AIDS every week, health professionals and AIDS activists said the Geneva deal did not address other factors such as health worker shortages and lack of clean water and electricity.

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