Antiretroviral drugs are not medicines used to cure HIV, but they can both inhibit virus replication and increase immune defence system in AIDS sufferers. Most important, they can prevent the virus transmission from mothers to children: children of women taking antiretroviral drugs will born healthy. Of course these mothers will can’t breastfeed their children with their own milk but they will bottle feed him with powdered milk.[1]
According to WHO (World Health Organization) antiretroviral drugs reduced of 80% in industrialized countries the death rate. WHO think that at least six million people in undevelopment countries need to take this drugs. But costs are too high. During the last years antiretroviral drugs cost increased exponentially: if an year therapy costed 99 dollars for person, now it costs 487 dollars for person. This is due to the lacking of general medicines. The reason is the patent right. Pharmaceutical companies have a corner on these medicines for 20 years, due to the 1995 WTO (World Trade Organization) TRIPS agreement . Big Pharma, this is the name given to the eight largest companies in the world, assert that the entrance of a new medicine in the market costs about 500 million dollars, so the research will go on only thanks to new gains. But Big Pharma forget to assert how much every year pharmaceutical companies managers earn: Hank McKinnell, Pfizer, 58 millions of dollars; Raymond Gilmartin, Merck, 67,5 millions of dollars; PR Dolan, Bristol Myer Squibb, 11,9 millions of dollars; Jean Pierre Garnier, Glaxo Smith- Kline, 11,8 millions of dollars. With these four wages amount could be bought antiretroviral drugs for one year for 1.154.285 people. For every AIDS sufferers in Africa there is someone in western countries gaining about his disease: “For each Joan of Arc there is a Hitler perched at the other end of the teeter-totter.”.[2]
Mandela tried to move around WTO rules, let producing by local companies some cheaper antiretroviral drugs. Western companies cited in judgement the South African Government. Then they renounced to the cause but South African government had to block the 1997 Medical Act. Mbeki, Mandela successor, fought pharmaceutical companies in another way: to do not pay for antiretroviral drugs anymore he denied the connection between HIV and AIDS.
What people ask is that the the Universal Declaration of Human Rights be respected, in particular Article 3 Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person and Article 25 (1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control. (2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.
Millennium Development Goals, aiming to reduce child mortality (number 4) and to combat HIV/AIDS (number 6) have been totally dismissed.
[1] Powdered milk for newborns is a serious problem in Africa. Nestlè is the major distributor of artificial mink in Africa and they give this milk for free to many hospitals. Moreover, due to deceptive promotion leaded by the company, people think that powdered milk is better for their children’s health. That’s not true because 15% more of children fed with powdered milk die, because mother’s milk has some antibodies that the artificial one have not. Besides some African mothers can’t sterilize baby’s bottles due to the lack of cooker and the water with which they mix the milk is dirty water. This cause deadly dysentery in the children. Moreover, due to the fact their children were fed at the hospital since when they born with powdered milk, mothers can’t feed more children with their own milk and they will be forced to buy artificial milk. But this milk will cost more than a half of the family incoming, so they will have to give less milk to the children than what they need…
[2] Charles Bukowski, Factotum.
