PAHO reports on the care and treatment of people with HIV in the Americas

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) has issued reports on the first seven of 47 countries and territories with new and specific data on the care and treatment of people with HIV in the Americas. They reflect a wide range of differences on prices, coverage and health costs.

The fact sheets – those released today are on Belize, Canada, Ecuador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and Paraguay – contain data on antiretroviral (ARV) coverage, lines of treatment and ARV prices. They also include information on laboratory diagnostic supplies, human resource capacity, and voluntary counseling and testing. Antiretroviral drugs prevent the emergence of opportunistic diseases characteristic of AIDS.

The cost of treating a patient with antiretroviral drugs for a year varied from US$ 2,400 in Nicaragua to $148 in Ecuador. The Care and Treatment Fact Sheets provide information about these countries, as well as Belize, Canada, Honduras and Panama. PAHO plans to issue similar fact sheets for all countries of the Americas.

The percentage of people who need antiretroviral drugs and get this treatment also varies significantly, according to the new documents. This coverage ranged from 11 percent in Nicaragua to 58 percent in Panama.

The new fact sheets are the first comprehensive set of data on the treatment for people living with HIV in the Americas. "The detailed information provided by these fact sheets will greatly improve the monitoring progress towards universal treatment in the region," said Dr. Carol Vlassoff, who heads PAHO's HIV/AIDS program.

Information for the fact sheets was provided by the ministries of health to PAHO and in most cases represent the first time this kind of information is compiled and distributed to the public. The fact sheets allow the countries and the international community to monitor and support the complex tasks involved in providing care to people living with HIV. The information included in these fact sheets – each one with an average of 14 pages in length – is expected to be of use to community groups involved in HIV programs and policies.

The countries in the Americas today are leading the developing world in providing treatment for HIV, as part of the World Health Organization's "3 by 5" goal of providing antiretrovirals to 3 million people living with HIV by the end of 2005. In line with that goal, the leaders of the region made the commitment at the Nuevo Leon summit to treat 600,000 people living with HIV by the next Summit of the Americas in Argentina in November 2005.

"Now we can better understand the specific challenges faced by each country in the Americas toward that goal, and the countries and the donor organizations can better target their activities," said Dr. Vlassoff, referring to the Nuevo Leon declaration on the region's "3 by 5" goals.