This is the VOA Special English Development Report.
A new international coalition has been launched to help fightAIDS and the H-I-V virus that causes it. The new International H-I-VTreatment Access Coalition will help provide anti-retroviral drugsto people in poor countries. This medicine helps prevent H-I-V fromdeveloping in the body. These drugs have been used in rich countriessince nineteen-ninety-six. They have resulted in a sharp drop inH-I-V and AIDS sickness and death in those countries. Coalitionofficials say poor countries in the developing world must now havethe same drugs.
Coalition officials say no single organization can successfullyspread anti-AIDS drugs around the world. Instead, a united groupeffort is required. The coalition plans to work together to shareinformation about successful treatment programs in developingcountries. It will also establish programs to buy the medicines andtrain health care workers about the drugs.
The coalition says the price of anti-retroviral drugs is nowdecreasing. A one-year treatment used to cost ten-thousand dollarsfor one person. Today, it is less than three-hundred dollars. Thisis still a high price for people in developing countries. However,coalition officials say more aid money is now being used to pay forthe drugs. In addition, many governments have reduced import taxeson medicines. Coalition officials say this political andhumanitarian support must now be expanded to make treatment areality for all people with H-I-V and AIDS.
The World Health Organization estimates more than forty-millionpeople have the disease. More than ninety-five percent live in poorand developing countries. Last year, nearly all of the more thanthree-million AIDS deaths were victims from these same poorcountries.
The W-H-O says only about five percent of the people living withH-I-V in developing countries use anti-retroviral drugs. Coalitionofficials say their goal is to increase the number of patients onAIDS drugs during the next three years.
The International H-I-V Treatment Access Coalition has fifty-sixmembers. They include governments, public health organizations,businesses, health researchers, humanitarian groups, victims, andtheir supporters. The W-H-O will supervise coalition efforts fromits headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
This VOA Special English Development Report was written by JillMoss.