A West African community has joined the network of community-based treatment support programs that form Bristol-Myers Squibb's real world field test of how HIV/AIDS treatment can best be combined with community-based care in some of the poorest and most remote areas of sub-Saharan Africa.
The new program is based in the resource-constrained Koulikoro District of Mali. The six model treatment sites are reporting this week on site readiness activities, enrollment and early clinical outcomes at the World AIDS Conference being held in Bangkok, Thailand.
The Mali program joins five others funded by the company's groundbreaking $115 million SECURE THE FUTURE® HIV/AIDS initiative. They are located in six of the nine countries in southern and West Africa in which SECURE THE FUTURE operates. In late 2003, the company provided $30 million in grants to fund these six innovative approaches to effectively delivering treatment and support for HIV/AIDS patients and their families. The program is expected to directly benefit more than 5,000 patients who will receive antiretroviral therapy and many thousands more in the long term, as its successful aspects are replicated.
"Bristol-Myers Squibb's SECURE THE FUTURE program has been working with its African partners for five years to determine the most effective ways to combat the HIV/AIDS pandemic. These new treatment sites, including the one we are now announcing for Mali, will use the knowledge and experience gained during that time to offer a spectrum of care to patients and their communities, while allowing us to carefully monitor and evaluate the successes and challenges of the programs," said Peter R. Dolan, chairman and chief executive officer. "Our goal is to develop programs that can be replicated elsewhere, often in resource-limited settings, to create a broader impact and greater success in fighting the pandemic."
The other five treatment sites are in Mbabane, Swaziland; Uthukela District, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa; Maseru, Lesotho; the Caprivi Region of Namibia; and Bobonong, Botswana. In addition, a separate grant to South Africa's National Association of People Living With HIV/AIDS will help build institutional capacity, mobilize communities and provide treatment literacy among its membership.
While most of the sites have only just become operational, data are already being collected. The sites already have already reached about 20,000 people through community mobilization activities, screened 821 patients and enrolled and begun treating or providing care for 494 people. Some 327 patients are undergoing screening procedures and will be enrolled in the program in the next few months. The sites have also enlisted more than 1300 volunteers in community-based support efforts. In Lesotho, for example, program organizers have been flooded with patients, mostly the very sick, straining available resources. In Swaziland, a prevention of mother to child transmission plus program, coupled with a variety of community support mechanisms, has enrolled 66 women in treatment, and all, except for one woman, have responded to therapy after three to six months. And of the 22 babies born to these mothers, only two have tested HIV positive.
According to Sebastian Wanless, M.D., who directs the medical care and research portion of the effort, "The initiative is already on track to enroll at least 1,000 patients by the end of 2004 in treatment or support programs of the approximately 5,000 expected to participate in the initial three-year program."