Drug-resistant HIV/AIDS is a global threat

Researchers from two think-tanks have warned that the existing policy decisions of the World Health Organization are a threat to the stability of the world's health care systems and will create an epidemic of HIV/AIDS drug resistance. In particular, the authors argue that the entire focus of international aid efforts to treat 9.8 million people with the disease by 2010 is misguided, and that preventative measures must be the priority.

Jeremiah Norris, the director of the Center for Science in Public Policy at the USA-based think-tank, the Hudson Institute and Philip Stevens, the health program director of the UK-based International Policy Network, argue, in an opinion article for the Turkish Daily News, that existing HIV/AIDS treatment strategies, particularly in Thailand (Marketletters passim) have had disastrous effects.

The problem is that the cost of using second-line treatments is nearly twice as high as for first-line drugs, according to international health advocacy group, Medecins Sans Frontieres, even without considering the infrastructure requirements for the more complicated treatment options: "treating 58 patients on second-line drugs is equivalent to the price of treating over 550 patients on first-line [drugs]," the group claims.