This is surprising stuff. A new survey of studies checking compliance with retroviral drug routines among HIV carriers found that Sub-Sharan Africans adhere to their treatment better and more faithfully than do North Americans. And the numbers are by no means small: 55 percent of North Americans follow their regimens, while a full 77% of Africans hew to theirs.
The study is important because drug companies have long propagated the myth that Africans wouldn't, didn't, or couldn't take their treatments, and thus all the anger and outrage over Pharma's unwillingness to donate pills was misplaced. The rationale was so widespread and convincing that it even showed up in a West Wing episode as a rational and fair rebuttal delivered by the health care executives unwilling to accede to Toby's wishes (just one more reason we should be glad West Wing is off the air).
Meanwhile, universal access to Anti-Retroviral Drugs remains little but a fond dream, with the absurdly low sums donated by the developed world leaving multibillion dollar gaps between what's being spent to deliver lifesaving treatments and what's needed to put them in everyone's hands. That's all the more galling because ARV drugs don't just help the infected, they stop the epidemic. Retroviral treatment reduce the viral load in the blood and render sexual transmission a near-impossibility. And yet we're not getting the drugs to those who need -- and will use -- them. It's a crime, and history will judge us for it.
AIDS Fun fact: Did you know the United States donated $2.1 billion to AIDS relief this years? And that that paltry sum was a full 48 percent of the world's total donations? Do you know how many hundreds of billions the Iraq War has cost? Do you know how fucked up that is?
