Latin Americans Fight for HIV Drugs
Across Latin America, they're calling it una gran victoria. In May, after more than a year of unsuccessful lobbying, hundreds of Panamanian HIV activists took to the streets, blocking traffic and chaining themselves to the government health agency building until officials there agreed to provide them with triple-combination therapy. Until Costa Rica was the only country among the seven nations of Central America to do so.

The Panamanian feat is especially impressive considering the stigma attached to HIV there. Up to this point, there have been few public demonstrations by HIV-positive people in Central America, where there are an estimated 24,000 AIDS cases. Now, about 1,500 will receive the HIV drug cocktails.

The Panama decision has encouraged activists across the southern hemisphere, who, like their Latino brothers and sisters in el norte, are fighting against the high cost of and lack of access to HIV medications. Some are hoping for a domino effect in neighboring countries but assume similar hardball tactics will be needed. There are already signs of activity on this front in El Salvador, where, like most of Central and South America, only AZT is available. Following on Panama's heels, Venezuela agreed in July to provide HIV therapy to its HIV population.

Good economics is a key argument made by the Panamanian protesters: Speaking on behalf of the Panamanian group, Dr. Orlando Quintero pointed out that Panama spent around $12,000 a year per patient to combat the opportunistic infections and conditions that eventually kill many AIDS patients, considerably more than the $6,500 annual costs of the latest treatment, triple-combination therapy. That's the line other Latin American activists are using to persuade their governments to adopt protease inhibitors. Right now several knockoff, or generic, anti-HIV drugs are produced in some Latin American countries, but protease drugs are not among them.

In the United States, several organizations have been busy trying to bridge the treatment gap by sending recycled medications, which were destined for the dump, to Central America. AID for AIDS, for example, started by Jesus Aguais in his own living room, has provided meds to 150 clients throughout Latin America. Although that covers just a fraction of the estimated 1.3 million people with HIV living there, Aguais believes that if 50 percent of U.S. medications now being thrown away could be recycled, it could make a real dent. For now, Aguais says, "It's not the cure for Latin America: We're just a little help."

In addition to the drugs, AID for AIDS provides case management and counseling services for their Latin American clients. The organization provides 95 percent of its clients with triple-combination therapy, and if patients fail the regimen, it works to keep them as clients. Says Aguais: "If you're going to give someone in a developing country HIV meds, you're going to have to commit to it forever."

Looking ahead, activists around the globe are fighting drug companies for the right to produce and buy HIV drugs at affordable prices, a subject that is making waves in Latin America, too.

The issue is, as they say, caliente.

-CF