PHM-Exch> MSF: 10 Stories that mattered in access to medicines in 2010

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: Maija Kagis <maija.kagis at sympatico.ca>





MSF: Ten Stories That Mattered in Access to Medicines  in 2010

      (Sheila Shettle)



To see the full list:
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/publications/article.cfm?id=4936&cat=special-report

Through its Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines, M?decins Sans
Fronti?res (MSF) has been closely following the developments in the world of
access to medicines, vaccines and diagnostics ? here is a selection of the
ten stories that mattered in 2010.



Among the positive stories of 2010 - two crucial new medical tools could
benefit people in developing countries:  a new vaccine could prevent the
worst meningitis epidemics in Africa if there is political will to vaccinate
broadly in all 25 affected countries, and a new test for tuberculosis could
improve diagnosis, while reducing the time it takes to detect drug-resistant
forms of the disease from nearly three months to less than two hours.



Further, new research on the treatment of severe malaria in children leaves
no doubt that artesunate injections should be used instead of quinine, but
guidelines and treatment protocols now need to change.  After several years
of campaigning by MSF, the Medicines Patent Pool was established, and
received strong political backing from the US ? but for access to affordable
medicines to be boosted by this new mechanism, drug companies will now need
to make their drug patents available. And after campaigning since 2007 for
improved quality of food aid directed at children under two years, MSF is
seeing international food donors starting to review and adjust their
policies.



But 2010 was also marked by setbacks.  Flying in the face of mounting
evidence that better and earlier HIV/AIDS treatment is the best way to
tackle the pandemic, international donors are turning their backs on AIDS,
causing funding to stagnate and threatening the advances made over the last
decade. At the same time, prices for newer drugs are set to go through the
roof because of damaging trade policies being pushed by the European Union.
MSF has mounted a global campaign to get the EU to back down, and people
have taken to the streets in Asia, Africa and Europe in support, but the EU
will not relent.



With outbreaks in a number of African countries claiming thousands of lives,
the resurgence of measles is an unsettling sign that basic vaccination
coverage is not as broad as it should be.  Meanwhile, efforts to tackle fake
medicines are veering off-course: instead of protecting the public from the
dangers of poor quality medicines, these initiatives pose a great risk to
access to affordable generic medicines upon which millions of people around
the world rely.  Finally, the ongoing neglect of tropical diseases shows no
sign of abating, as South Sudan tackles its largest kala azar epidemic in
close to a decade.



To see the full list with photographs:

http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/publications/article.cfm?id=4936&cat=special-report





 MSF Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines

www.msfaccess.org
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