Free_Hiv_Aids_Medication

"Whether International Pharmaceutical Companies Should Provide HIV/AIDS Medications to Africa Free of Charge" In 1991, one of the best basketball players in the world, "Magic" Johnson announced that he was HIV positive. Because he is a famous athlete, Johnson brought a lot of attention to HIV/AIDS, especially in the United States. Johnson drew attention to the fact that HIV/AIDS is disease anyone can get, no matter how important or how wealthy a person may be. Along with Johnson, other famous people have spoken out about HIV/AIDS. On December 1, World AIDS Day, concerts and speeches are held all over the world raising money to fight HIV/AIDS and informing people about it too. Many people, because of Johnson and other celebrities, have heard about HIV/AIDS, but many people do not know a lot about how it is affecting people all over the world. Two-thirds of the 40 million people with HIV/AIDS live in Africa, that's almost 27 million people making Africa the epicenter of the disease. In addition, sub-Saharan Africa is the only place in the world where the number of women infected is higher than the number of men with HIV/AIDS. You have undoubtedly heard of the term epidemic, referring to a disease that spreads rapidly within a region or country. This term does not reflect the severity of HIV/AIDS. Since HIV/AIDS impacts so many people in every region of the world, medical scientists refer to the disease as a pandemic. While HIV/AIDS has no cure, the best treatments for it are drugs called ARV’s(Anti-retroviral treatment). These are the drugs that have helped Magic Johnson live over a decade with HIV. ARV’s, though, are expensive - it can cost up to $10,000 to $15,000 a year for the treatment of one individual. The average per capita income, though, for most African countries is less than $300 a year, making the drugs too expensive for many people. It has been estimated that the cost of ARVs will have to be reduced by 95% before they can be affordable to all who need them (Panos, 2000: 2). In developing countries, there may be only one pharmacist for one million people. A full course of antibiotics to cure common pneumonia may cost one month’s wages. In many countries, one year’s HIV treatment if it were purchased would consume the equivalent of 30 years income. And the majority of households must buy their medicines from their own pockets. (Scholtz, 1999) That being said to provide HIV/AIDS medical assistance free of charge will be very difficult considering there will be no funding coming from the developing country of Africa. Moreover, even if the drugs were available, an appropriate infrastructure would need to be developed for their delivery. In a global environment where aid commitments have fallen over the past decade, and where debt reduction has been slow in coming, the costs of such infrastructural development are prohibitive. (Thomas, 2002: 252) And with that it’ll be unreasonable for the U.S. or any other continent to intervene and pay for Africa’s medication free of charge when other countries are going through it themselves. The U.S. of course will be the first continent for Africa to seek for help, but in the U.S. there are over 1 million people infected. And if the U.S. were to fund Africa for the cause of HIV/AIDS then other continents will be hoping they receive the same favor. Future research may be hindered due to lack of funding and new strains of the virus can be developed with no new medication to be administered to help fend off the virus, which will put the whole plan to get meds to every infected patient and that lands us back to square one. This is why I believe we should keep on looking for an alternative solution other than just free drugs for the continent of Africa.