AIDS Advocacy Group Releases Necessary Overhaul Warnings

The International Treatment Preparedness Coalition, (ITPC), has recently announced, that global AIDS treatment efforts will not meet G8 treatment goals unless key treatment issues are improved.

G8 treatment goals include reaching five million Africans and providing global universal access to AIDS drugs. The "Missing the Target" report, the fourth report in a series, gives a 17 country summary of set-backs and achievements of AIDS treatments. The report also provides a treatment delivery review for six countries that were not in previous reports. The report was released by ITPC, a group that includes more than 1,000 treatment activists located in over 125 countries. The full report is available through the http://www.aidstreatmentaccess.org website.

The research from the report concluded that increasing numbers of people are receiving treatments, but providing those treatments to additional persons will only be achieved through overcoming significant challenges. Some of these challenges include: bringing critical nutritional and transportation support services to affected persons, the treatment plans usually do not include HIV prevention, 2^nd line AIDS drugs, and TB services, the stigmatization of persons with AIDS is a barrier to treatment, treatment is not affordable for many people with HIV/AIDS, and access to care is often challenging for children and rural populations.