Select Page

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs allows HIV medication to be resumed for the time being

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs allows HIV medication to be resumed for the time being

The Trump administration issued a waiver of life -saving medicines and medical services on Tuesday and offered a creation for a worldwide HIV treatment program that was discontinued last week.

The waiver announced by Foreign Minister Marco Rubio seemed to allow the distribution of HIV medication, but whether the waiver of preventive drugs or other services offered by the program, the president’s emergency plan for the AIDS relief, was not immediately clear.

Nevertheless, the future of Pepfar remains in danger of potential consequences for more than 20 million people – including 500,000 children – that could lose access to life -saving medication. Without treatment, millions of people with HIV in countries with low incomes of adult AIDS and premature death would be threatened.

“We can quickly return to where the pandemic explodes as it was in the 1980s,” said Dr. Steve Deeks, HIV expert at the University of California in San Francisco.

“That really can’t happen,” he said.

On Monday, the Trump management ordered health organizations in other countries to immediately cease the distribution of HIV medication with US help. The guideline came from a freezing that can be permanently, in the activities of Pepfar, a program of 7.5 billion US dollars supervised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Pepper has saved more than 25 million lives since his beginning in 2003. More than 5.5 million children were born free from HIV that would otherwise have been infected.

In South Africa alone, the shutdown of Pepfar would add more than half a million HIV infections and more than 600,000 related deaths in the next decade.

The organization employs 270,000 doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other healthcare staff. They were told that they should not report to work or serve patients.

The end of Pepfar would “create instability and possibly collapse several AIDS programs from countries that will be difficult to repair if and when Peppfar financing becomes available again”, South Africa.

Dr. Abdool Karim said the countries should stop relying on Pepper and supporting their own citizens, a goal that the employees and the partners of the program had worked on. But ideally, this shift would gradually happen, for years in which Pepfar would train the local health workers and prepare them for the transition, he said.

“This is not a bad opportunity for the countries to take on more responsibility,” he said. “But I think you can’t do it if it is done in this kind of random and unplanned manner.”

He and others expect the following from Pepper’s unexpected break.

Every day, more than 220,000 people take up HIV medication in clinics financed by Pepfar. According to data published on Tuesday, the number included more than 7,400 children under the age of 15, the Foundation for AIDS research.

The drugs work by suppressing HIV in the body. When patients leave the medication, the virus takes the opportunity to recover – and quickly. Within a week, the HIV values ​​of non -detectable values ​​will skyrocket to more than 100,000 copies per milliliter of blood.

“It can be a time when you are very threatened to pass on the virus to others,” said Dr. Sallie Permar, pediatrician and HIV expert at Weill Cornell Medicine.

The virus will then attack a certain type of immune cell and the body’s ability to ward off other infections, including tuberculosis, which are often associated with HIV infections.

First, HIV levels can lead to flulics symptoms, including sore throat, swollen glands and tiredness. The immune system will probably march enough power to temporarily suppress the virus, but HIV is skillful in hiding until it finds the right opportunity to react again.

If this occasion corresponds, “you can develop aids and progress,” said Dr. Deeks.

Pepper is best known for the financing of HIV treatment programs, but its funds are also about drugs for prevention, public relations and tests and to support orphans and women with gender-specific violence.

The loss of resources for each of these efforts will derail the fight against AIDS, said Dr. Glenda Gray, a pediatric HIV expert at Wits University in South Africa.

“If HIV tests fall by the wayside, it is unlikely that we can even diagnose people who have to go to treatment,” she said.

When a pregnant or breastfeeding woman H.IV. But it is not tested and not treated, she can pass on the virus to your child. The higher your viral load, the more likely this is.

Children with HIV are less likely to be diagnosed than adults and may only be treated until the virus makes them visibly very sick. This progression can be much faster in children than in adults, said Dr. Gray: “And obviously children who are not treated will probably die.”

When people lose access to medication, they can try to distribute their supplies by changing days or share their pills with others. If the virus of people with only partial protection replicates, it can learn to escape these defendments and become resistant to the medication.

People who live with the virus can then pass on the resistant virus to others.

“This will become a big problem, because now our cheap first medication may not work suddenly if we have to restart them during the treatment,” said Dr. Abdool Karim.

A virus that is resistant to treatments is also better in depriving vaccination candidates that are tested.

“We are not only looking for more drug resistance, we also want to make the ability to make an effective vaccine,” said Dr. Permar.

More than a million Americans live with the virus and more than 30,000 infected every year. If HIV becomes resistant to available medication, it is probably not in countries with low income. Americans will also be at risk.

You can also confront indirect damage by the end of Pepper. The creation of large population groups of immunocompromised people can mean that other pathogens have the opportunity to spread. For example, it is accepted

At the same time, people worldwide benefited from experiments that were carried out under the patronage of Pepaffar and show how important it is to treat HIV early, and shows that pregnant women are sure to be treated as long as they are treated and that HIV infections are involved long -acting medication can be prevented.

“America has received an astonishing amount of love worldwide because it did what it did,” said Dr. Deeks.

“From a humanitarian point of view, I cannot imagine that someone really wants to go in this way,” he added. “This doesn’t make sense at any level.”

About The Author

Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

RECENT REVIEWS

Recent Videos

Loading...