<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">Maija Kagis</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:maija.kagis@sympatico.ca">maija.kagis@sympatico.ca</a>></span><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div bgcolor="white" lang="EN-US" link="#1E66AE" vlink="#1E66AE">
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<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">MSF: Ten Stories That Mattered in Access to
Medicines in 2010</span></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"> (Sheila Shettle)</span></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"> </span></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">To see the full list: <a href="http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/publications/article.cfm?id=4936&cat=special-report" target="_blank"><font color="black"><span style="color:windowtext;text-decoration:none">http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/publications/article.cfm?id=4936&cat=special-report</span></font></a></span></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">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. </span></font></p>
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<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">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. </span></font></p>
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<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">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.</span></font></p>
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<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">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.</span></font></p>
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<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">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.</span></font></p>
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<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">To see the full list with photographs: </span></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><a href="http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/publications/article.cfm?id=4936&cat=special-report" target="_blank"><font color="black"><span style="color:windowtext;text-decoration:none">http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/publications/article.cfm?id=4936&cat=special-report</span></font></a></span></font></p>
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<p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; "> MSF Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines</span></p>
<p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; "><a href="http://www.msfaccess.org" target="_blank"><font color="black"><span style="color:windowtext;text-decoration:none">www.msfaccess.org</span></font></a></span></p>
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