Better healthcare needed for HIV patients

Progressio has backed former US President Bill Clinton's call for medical services to be improved in the fight against HIV and AIDS.

Speaking at a major international AIDS conference in Mexico, Mr Clinton said that improving national health systems was needed more than an injection of cash.

'That's increasingly in the last few years what our foundation has been focused on,' he said, ' what is the most cost-effective way to mobilise a national health system. You can get the universal treatment - the money's there now, if we spend it most effectively.'

Liz Tremlett, Progressio's programme support officer, who attended the Mexico meeting, echoed his words. She said, 'It's the health services that need to be improved. There needs to be more emphasis on getting treatment out to people in rural areas and providing testing. But it's also critical that those working in the medical profession are better educated about HIV and AIDS. Currently in Namibia, women with HIV are sterilised and in the Ukraine, positive women are forced to have abortions. This has to change.'

The UN Aids conference is a bi-annual event bringing together HIV positive people and those working in the area from around the world.

At the conference, Mr Clinton called for a 50 per cent increase in funding for anti-retroviral drugs, to keep pace with the growing demand for drugs.

But details of trials for a vaccine that could reduce the need for long-term drug use were not announced at the conference.

Further reading: Positive news on AIDS is only half the story:

Read Liz Tremlett's analysis of the conference in full.