African AIDS drug compliance report refutes world media.NEW YORK New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of -- African AIDS patients have a higher rate of drug compliance at about 90 per cent on average compared to 70 per cent in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. , according a report in the New York Times. This contradicts assertions made and spread by the pharmaceutical companies and spread by world's media, including the CBC's acclaimed science program, Quirks & Quarks. Some doctors, politicians and pharmaceutical executives argued that it was unsafe to send millions of doses of antiretroviral drugs Antiretroviral Drugs Definition Antiretroviral drugs inhibit the reproduction of retroviruses—viruses composed of RNA rather than DNA. The best known of this group is HIV, human immunodeficiency virus, the causative agent of AIDS. to Africa because incomplete drug taking might speed the mutations of drug-resistant strains which could spread worldwide. Currently, about ten per cent of all new HIV HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), either of two closely related retroviruses that invade T-helper lymphocytes and are responsible for AIDS. There are two types of HIV: HIV-1 and HIV-2. HIV-1 is responsible for the vast majority of AIDS in the United States. infections in Europe are resistant to at least one drug, but this is not unusual since drug-resistant strains are inevitable in every disease from malaria to ear infections. Assertions were also made that Africans would abuse their HIV drug regimes, if low cost antiretroviral drugs were provided. In 2001 the director for the United States Agency for International Development The United States Agency for International Development (or USAID) is the U.S. government organization responsible for most non-military foreign aid. An independent federal agency, it receives overall foreign policy guidance from the U.S. caused an outcry when he said that AIDS drugs "wouldn't work" in Africa because many Africans do not use clocks and "don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. what western time is." Surveys recently conducted in Botswana, Uganda, Senegal and South Africa have found a higher compliance rate among Africans than among u.s. citizens, and that compliance in the u.s. is even worse among the homeless and drug abusers. As well, compliance in Africa has become easier because of new drug regimes whereby drug makers in India and elsewhere are beginning to make triple-therapy cocktails that are available in as few as two pills per day. These two-pill cocktails are unavailable in the u.s. because of patent problems. Dr. David Bangsberg, a professor of medicine at the University of California The University of California has a combined student body of more than 191,000 students, over 1,340,000 living alumni, and a combined systemwide and campus endowment of just over $7.3 billion (8th largest in the United States). and a compliance expert says African patients are also more truthful when estimating their adherence, and overall doctors say most African patients are zealous about their drug regimes. |
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