Treatment
Even with the recent growth in access to AIDS treatment, many millions of people still lack access to life-saving treatment and associated services. Commitments to reaching universal access by 2010, including to treatment, have to be translated into programmatic and budgetary action by governments and donors. This also requires greater attention to ensuring reach to marginalized groups, children and people with limited access to health service. Integration with prevention services and expanded support to broader healthcare systems development are also essential.
Today universal access to AIDS treatment would not even be seen as achievable if is was not for the mobilization and activism by the community sector on HIV and AIDS. For instance, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) has continued to inspire national treatment movements among civil society organizations. Legal challenges in South Africa and Venezuela have led to groundbreaking judgments on the need to provide life-saving treatment to people living with HIV/AIDS. Treatment advocates and activists are more networked than ever before.
The International Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPC) has convened and established an articulate treatment community that is driving the discussion and debate on the world's collective responsibility. ITPC’s series of “Missing the Target” reports continue to provide the community evidence that the pace of treatment scale up is still too slow to achieve universal access by 2010. Millions of people still of no access to first and second line drugs, CD4 and other testing technologies, or to critical HIV prevention and TB services.
ICASO-supported community monitoring and evaluation in 14 countries found a similar lack of sufficient scale-up of treatment. Extensive barriers exist in many countries, ranging from lack of budget commitment, to weak or under-funded health sectors, high drug costs, and stigma and discrimination of people living with HIV and marginalized groups.
ITPC Summary #5