AIDS in Africa "$1,120/pa to treat each patient"

Treating three million AIDS patients in sub-Saharan Africa would costmore than $3.3 billion per annum for three years, say Harvard University faculty members. Each patient would cost $1,120 a year to treat, including drugs, testing, monitoring and research, they say, but not including other treatment and prevention programs, which would cost an additional $3 billion a year for only one million people. By the fifth year, total costs of treatment and prevention for three million people would reach around $6.3 billion a year, they add.

Three-four million people in sub-Saharan Africa are in the advanced stages of AIDS, but only about 10,000 have access to antiretroviral drug therapies, says the Harvard report, which adds that clinical trials should be conducted to determine optimum HIV treatment in these countries.