AFRO-NETS> South Africa introduces world's largest AIDS treatment plan

[Dieter Neuvians MD <neuvians@mweb.co.za>]

South Africa introduces world's largest AIDS treatment plan
-----------------------------------------------------------
 
Operational Plan for Comprehensive HIV and AIDS Care, Management 
and Treatment for South Africa - 19 November 2003
 
Executive Summary of the report (Adobe PDF file - 44 pp. 248 kB):
http://www.gov.za/reports/2003/aidsoperationalplan.pdf
 
Full report as Adobe PDF file (262 pp. 2.6 MB):
http://www.gov.za/reports/2003/aidsplan/report.pdf
 
Download chapter by chapter at:
http://www.gov.za/issues/hiv/careplan19nov03.htm
 
 
The South African government has reversed its previous refusals 
to use antiretroviral drugs to treat AIDS and will introduce what 
is likely to be the world's largest comprehensive AIDS treatment 
plan.
 
A long awaited cabinet meeting on 19 November agreed to a plan to 
introduce the treatment throughout the public health system. 
 
The plan adopted by the government will provide for the training 
and recruitment of staff, the acquisition of drugs, the upgrading 
of the health system in general, and the monitoring of the 
effects of the programme. 
 
The plan is to treat some 1.4 million people with antiretroviral 
drugs within five years. About 53,000 people are expected to 
start the programme in the current financial year which ends in 
April 2004. Actuarial models project that about 400,000 people 
with HIV will develop an AIDS defining illness during 2003. 
 
Eligibility for the programme will depend on a CD4 count of 200 
or an AIDS defining illness and the willingness to be treated 
with antiretrovirals. 

Source: BMJ 2003;327:1246 (29 November)

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