Access to treatments

Malaria cases have increased dramatically in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, leaving clinics and treatment centres unable to cope, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has warned...   "Treatment outside the cities remains especially weak, due to unaffordability or geographic inaccessibility," said Dr Jorgen Stassijns, a malaria specialist for MSF. "In some areas, healthcare is simply non-existent. Even when treatment is available, the drugs are sometimes inadequate or outdated."...   Read full article here

Bangkok, Thailand – In a report released today Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF), the largest provider of HIV treatment in Myanmar, highlights the critical need for increased HIV and Tuberculosis (TB), including multi drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), treatment in the country. An HIV patient is assessed in an MSF clinic, Myanmar. He is 21 years old yet weighs just 23kg. Photo: Greg Constantine   According to the report, 85,000 people in urgent need of lifesaving anti-retroviral therapy (ART) in Myanmar are today unable to access it. Of an estimated 9,300 people newly infected with MDR-TB each year, so far just over 300 have been receiving treatment...

 The UN estimates that over the last few years between 15,000 – 20,000 people living with HIV die annually in Myanmar, because of lack of access to urgent lifesaving anti-retroviral therapy (ART). Lives in the Balance outlines the situation for people affected by HIV and TB, with a special focus on multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB), in Myanmar today. It calls for urgent funding and assistance to be made available by the international donor community to help Myanmar close the devastating gap between people’s need and people’s access to treatment for HIV and TB. An estimated 120,000 people living with HIV/AIDS are in need of lifesaving ART, in Myanmar. In 2010, according to national estimates,...

MSF South Africa, TAC, Section27 & He-Tic Warn on Eve of Crucial Summit   JOHANNESBURG  – As India and the European Union prepare to meet at a New Delhi summit to finalize a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) under negotiation since 2007, Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF), the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), SECTION27 and He-Tic held a picket to warn that harmful provisions in the agreement could have a severely negative impact on access to medicine for people in developing countries.     The picket, which took place in front of the Indian Consulate in Johannesburg, was part of a global week of action by civil society and health activists...