9TH EUROPEAN AIDS CONFERENCE (EACS) 1st EACS RESISTANCE & PHARMACOLOGY WORKSHOP October 25 - 29, 2003 Warsaw, Poland

95% of the 42 million people who are living with HIV/AIDS worldwide live in developing countries. Yet an estimated 6 million people in developing countries are in immediate need of life-sustaining antiretroviral therapy (ART), and only around 300,000 receive it.

For many years, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has been caring for people living with HIV/AIDS in developing countries. Programmes included prevention, VCTC, psychosocial support, prophylaxis and treatments of OI, palliative care, PMTCT and PEP for health workers and rape victims. Since 2000, MSF is treating patients with ART in a growing number of developing countries. MSF experience has demonstrated that providing effective treatment is not only feasible in resource-poor settings, but has concrete clinical benefits and dramatic effects on the lives of individuals and their communities. MSF is now scaling up ART. As of June 2003, 23 MSF projects in 14 countries are providing ARV and 5 103 patients already benefited from them; 4 472 are alive and still on treatment today, including 310 children. 25 additional ARV projects are planned by 2004 in 16 countries. Scaling up requires political will and was only possible through increased drug access including use of prequalified generics, simplification of treatment protocols and case management, and partnership with local community members and health actors.

Consolidated data from seven MSF projects in South Africa, Malawi, Kenya, Cameroon, Cambodia, Thailand and Guatemala presented in Barcelona conference showed that at six months survival was 93%, with an mean weight gain of 3kg and 104 CD4cells/mm³ increase, adherence to treatment was good and where viral load was tested virus was undetectable for 82% patients (<100 copies/ml). We now propose to give a two years follow up of this cohort.

Presenting Author: Elise Klement, Paris, France

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