Text: PAHO Unveils New Regional HIV/AIDS Plan

07 January 2002

Text: PAHO Unveils New Regional HIV/AIDS Plan

Estimates 2.6 million disease cases in the hemisphere

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is issuing new guidelines for governments to follow in providing care for the estimated 2.6 million people in the Americas infected with HIV.

"We are stressing the importance of linking prevention with treatment of HIV/AIDS infection. The two cannot be considered separately, since treatment offers an opportunity to improve prevention and vice versa," said Dr. Fernando Zacar��s, coordinator of the Regional Program on HIV/AIDS and STI, in a January 3 press release.

The recommendations are issued as part of a periodic regional survey of disease cases that PAHO began in 1986. In an attempt to contain and treat the virus, PAHO has adopted a multi-pronged strategy encompassing surveillance, research, health promotion, information dissemination, international cooperation and other actions.

This press release is available in Spanish at http://www.paho.org/Spanish/DPI/100/100feature01.htm

Further PAHO documents on HIV/AIDS are available at http://www.paho.org/Project.asp?SEL=TP&LNG=ENG&CD=AIDSS

Following is the text of the PAHO press release:

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PAN AMERICAN HEALTH ORGANIZATION
PAHO/WHO

AIDS: Present and Future of the Epidemic in the Americas

Washington, DC, January 3, 2002 -- National health systems in the Americas could improve the way they handle the AIDS epidemic, as well as the way they provide care to individuals who have the disease, according to guidelines from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).

"Combating the epidemic in the Region also requires that we focus on the dignity of people already infected who are living with HIV/AIDS. This includes improving access to care and quality, humane treatment," said Dr. George Alleyne, Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), at the launch of a new strategic plan for AIDS prevention and control in the Caribbean.

Nearly 2.6 million people in the Americas are infected with HIV. Of these, 1.3 million live in Latin America, 360,000 in the Caribbean, and almost 1 million in North America, according to the figures in Update on HIV/AIDS Surveillance in the Americas, the report of the joint WHO/PAHO/UNAIDS Working Group.

In 1997, this same group reported almost 750,000 cases and 440,000 deaths from AIDS since the PAHO surveillance system went into operation in 1986. As of May 2000, a cumulative total of 1,088,053 cases in the Americas was reported, representing more than a one-third increase. At the same time, the number of pediatric cases (children under 15 years of age) rose from 13,119 to 19,321, nearly the 1.8 percent of the total.

The spread of the epidemic and the need for a humanistic approach to patient care led PAHO to launch its "Building Blocks Model for HIV/AIDS Comprehensive Care," aimed at strengthening and improving care for people living with this disease in the Americas. This model offers specific guidelines for patient care in the community, the family, and health services, in accordance with the available resources and capacity.

PAHO's regional strategies to control and prevent AIDS have focused on surveillance, research, health promotion, information dissemination, direct technical cooperation, resource mobilization, training, and international cooperation.

"We are stressing the importance of linking prevention with treatment of HIV/AIDS infection. The two cannot be considered separately, since treatment offers an opportunity to improve prevention and vice versa," said Dr. Fernando Zacar��s, Coordinator of the Regional Program on HIV/AIDS and STI.

At a PAHO meeting on 20 September 2000, the ministers of health of the Region adopted a resolution on AIDS in the Americas, calling for all countries to consolidate their individual efforts to combat the epidemic by focusing on better monitoring of trends. It also called for improved prevention of the disease through all ways of transmission: sexual, mother-to-child, and illegal drug use.

Access to medicine is key to the treatment of AIDS patients and has become a serious problem for many countries in the Region. The resolution asks the Director of PAHO to continue working on developing a system that would allow Member States to buy medicines at lower prices.

"Antiretrovirals are something that should be provided where necessary, and they should be made accessible to the greatest number of people," said Dr. Zacar��s. "In addition to continuing its work to develop the Revolving Fund, the Organization is exploring alternatives, such as the rapid access to antiretrovirals currently available for Africa, with other agencies, institutions, and programs such as UNAIDS, in order to determine which of our countries could gradually take advantage of this other possibility."

PAHO also functions as the Regional Office for the Americas of the World Health Organization. Officially established in 1902, it is the world's oldest health organization and works with all the countries of the Americas to improve health and raise the standard of living.

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