Ann De Ron

BRUSSELS, Nov 2 2006 (IPS) – Médecins Sans Frontières and other groups campaigning for access to affordable medicines in developing countries are closely following a case filed by the Swiss pharmaceuticals giant Novartis against Indian patent law.
A decision in this case can create an important precedent, with consequences that go far beyond India. If the Novartis challenge against the Indian patent law is successful, patients worldwide who depend on India for affordable medicines risk becoming victims, Ellen t Hoen, policy director with the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines told IPS.

Eighty-four percent of AIDS medicines we currently use for patients in more than 40 countries come from India, Ellen t Hoen said. Because of the lower prices we can treat 60,000 people. If we would use only patented medicines this would be a lot less. And this is only one example.

As of 2005, India is bound by World Tra…

Tiego Tiemtoré

OUAGADOUGOU, Nov 30 2006 (IPS) – I think free treatment for all (HIV) infected people is indispensable, just as safeguarding the jobs of those with HIV is a must, says Issa Kindo, a public health physician in Ouagadougou, capital of Burkina Faso.
Fine words. But, what progress are authorities in this West African nation making towards achieving universal and free AIDS treatment for its citizens?

Apparently, much remains to be done: only subsidised care is available at present, even though dire poverty puts this treatment beyond the reach of many.

According to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), HIV prevalence in Burkina Faso stands at 4.2 percent. Of the 700,000 people infected by the virus, about 100,000 require anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs).

But, figures from the Ministry of Health note that just 6,666 were receiving medication at the end of September 2005 (the number has risen since), up from 2,200 in December…

Ousseini Issa

NIAMEY, Jan 18 2007 (IPS) – The new year is looking much like the old for certain residents of the Pays-Bas shantytown in Niger s capital, Niamey. Four months after seeing their homes demolished in the name of safety and security, they are still waiting for resettlement at an alternative, developed site promised by authorities.
I am currently living with a neighbour whose home was spared, by chance said Binta Tchindo, a divorced mother of five. The lack of privacy is terrible, she told IPS. Still, she cannot bring herself to rebuild her own house, as she fears it will only be destroyed again.

Home to more than 5,000 people, Pays-Bas derives its name from the French bas-fonds , a term for a slum, according to resident Alpha Seydou. It is located in the south-east of Niamey, on rugged ground along the road to the airport.

Claiming that the take-off and landing of planes made the position of the informal settlement hazardous, municipal official…

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Ngo Thi Thu Phuong – Newsmekong*

TAY NINH, Vietnam, Feb 12 2007 (IPS) – On a rough, earthen road flanked by green rice paddies, Phan Anh Tam throws unhusked rice, mixed with mash and dried fish, to thousands of white ducks waddling around his thin legs.
For 15 years now, Tam has been raising ducks in the Ben Cau district of the south-western Vietnamese province of Tay Ninh, near the Cambodian border. But these days he is worried by a temporary ban of duck-raising to contain the spread of avian influenza.

If I m not allowed to raise ducks (in Vietnam) anymore, I must keep going on, but in Cambodia, Tam says, making himself heard above the quacking.

Tam prefers Cambodia, should the government crack down on his business, because it is near his hometown and because the adjacent country has more lax laws on breeding ducks.

The Vietnamese government s temporary ban on duck breeding was based on the belief that waterfowl are less resistant to infection c…

Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Mar 20 2007 (IPS) – A broad coalition of Thai non-governmental organisations (NGOs) is threatening to tap the spirit of nationalism, which runs deep and wide here, in a showdown with a Chicago-based pharmaceutical giant. The need for access to cheaper life-saving drugs has sparked this row.
The street outside the Thailand office of Abbott Laboratories in a popular shopping area in downtown Bangkok is poised to become one of the many battlegrounds in this imminent clash. Other sites the NGOs have in mind are shops that sell Abbott products, advertising agencies and Thai customers.

Abbott does not care about Thai people. We call on Thai people to boycott all Abbott products, Saree Aongsomwang, manager of the Foundation for Consumers, said this week. We have to stand up to Abbott.

Her call was echoed by Rosana Tositrakul, a member of the Thai Holistic Health Foundation, who compared support for Abbott as equal to supporting a f…

Briana Sapp

BRUSSELS, Apr 23 2007 (IPS) – With two-thirds of the world s HIV/AIDS victims living in sub-Saharan Africa, sickness and death is too often a part of doing business in the region. But now microfinance institutions have found ways to reduce financial risk while attacking new infections.
Microfinance institutions (MFIs) have grown through the region as a way to boost economic development on a local scale. Micro-loans, oftentimes as small as 15 dollars to help someone start a small business, traditionally have nearly 100 percent repayment rates, but HIV has hit the cycle very hard.

In areas where HIV/AIDS infection rates are high, repayment can range from 65.25 percent to 86.27 percent as compared to 98 percent with non-infected borrowers, says Francesco Strobbe of the Economic Statistics Department of the European Central Bank.

Sub-Saharan Africa, according to UNAIDS in 2006, was home to 13.2 million HIV-infected people. It is then no wonder why …

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, May 31 2007 (IPS) – A novel programme aimed at fomenting a reading habit among low-income sectors was launched in Argentina: the Books and Houses campaign will deliver a bookshelf complete with 18 volumes to each affordable housing unit assigned to families this year through government assistance plans.
The books were carefully selected by a team of experts in education and literature, coordinated by officials at the Secretariat of Culture. More than 70 percent of the works were specially published for the programme, which plans to distribute a total of 80,000 bookshelves to 800 districts and towns around the country.

They re beautiful books, Sandra Ruiz, who lives in Añatuya, a town in the northwestern province of Santiago del Estero, told IPS. There s poetry, fables, stories and practical manuals.

The programme began by delivering the bookshelves to 70 homes in Añatuya, where 27 percent of the 20,000 local residents have…

Fabiana Frayssinet*

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jun 27 2007 (IPS) – In under a decade, programmes providing universal free access to antiretroviral medicines have greatly decreased AIDS mortality in countries like Argentina and Brazil, but this progress is now threatened by the rising prices of new formulas patented by the big pharmaceutical companies.

Credit: World Health Organisation

The Brazilian Health Ministry guarantees access to antiretroviral medications for all people with HIV/AIDS.

According to the National Programme on Sexually Transmitted Diseases and AIDS (PN-DST/AIDS), 180,000 people in Brazil are regularly taking these drugs, which reduce the HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) load in the body, improving quality of life and preventing opportunistic infections.

Between 1996 …