Doctors plead for support in the distribution of meds in Haiti anddisease crises

GHN News Editor - "The increasing numbers of cases of suspected cholera in our facilities
throughout Port-au-Prince are certainly alarming,” said Stefano Zannini,
MSF head of mission in Haiti.   Doctors Without Borders worry about this along with restrictions on medicines in emergencies.

“Cholera is a highly treatable and

preventable disease, especially once symptomatic patients are treated in
a controlled, isolated environment like a CTC. The presence of CTCs in
cholera-affected areas can relieve pressure on local hospitals and
health structures, greatly reducing the risk of infection among
pre-existing inpatients and the wider community.”

 Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)  has called upon Europe to stop trade actions that restrict access to affordable generic medicines in India.  India is a major producer of medications for the developing world.


“European Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht is attempting to give
Europe’s pharmaceutical industry a backdoor to monopolies that lead to
high drug prices and will keep pills out of reach of patients,” said Dr.
Tido von Schoen-Angerer, director of MSF’s Campaign for Access to
Essential Medicines. “India has a patents law that is strict about what
does and what doesn’t deserve a patent, but Europe is using dirty legal
tricks to get around this law and block cheaper generic medicines.”


Europe is pushing ‘data exclusivity’ policies that would interfere with the competition from generics for up to ten years and block the progress of generic makers.


“Our medical programs depend on a constant supply of affordable
medicines,” said Ariane Bauernfeind, operational coordinator for MSF
projects in South Africa, Malawi, Lesotho, and Zimbabwe. “For people
with HIV/AIDS who need medicines to stay alive, a ten-year wait to get a
newer drug is not viable. They’ll die waiting. Half of all children
born with HIV/AIDS won’t make it to their second birthday without
treatment.  We can’t let the EU shut down our supply of affordable newer
medicines.”


India has been called the ‘pharmacy of the developing world,’ because
it produces affordable generic versions of medications and does provide oversight.  Doctors Without Borders maintains its organization uses these to treat more than 160,000 people with HIV/AIDS.   The Journal of the International
AIDS Society, found India a source for more than 80 percent of all donor-funded HIV
medicine purchases during the period 2003 - 2008.

In the meantime, Doctors Without Borders struggles to intervene in a growing crisis in Haiti, while it pleads for support from Europe to stop blocking generic medications for serious diseases and for the rest of the world to contribute in helping Haiti in this crisis.