MSF warns about lack of access to antiretroviral treatment in DRC, urges government, donor action

"Eighty-six percent of HIV-positive people in the Democratic Republic of Congo [DRC] have no access to antiretrovirals, medical charity Doctors Without Borders said Wednesday," calling the "conditions of access to care for people living with HIV/AIDS ... catastrophic," Agence France-Presse reports (1/25). Approximately 15,000 people living with HIV in the DRC "likely will die waiting for lifesaving drugs in the next three years," the organization, also known as Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), said, the Associated Press reports.

A statement from the organization "called for Congo's government to meet its commitment to provide free treatment to people living with HIV and AIDS, and for donors to immediately mobilize resources 'to ensure that patients waiting for ARV treatment are not condemned to die,'" according to the AP. Of an estimated 350,000 people in need of antiretroviral treatment, only 44,000 are receiving therapy, the AP notes (Mwanamilongo, 1/25).