【AIDS Drugs' Fast Rise in Asia Risks Resistant Strains】July 8, 2004
At least 27 Asian companies are manufacturing anti-H.I.V. drugs that are becoming
increasingly available in Asia and elsewhere, the organization said. Yet anti-H.I.V. drugs
from only three companies meet the World Health Organization's quality standards;
those from the 24 other companies have not been reviewed by the organization or
have not met its standards.
anti-H.I.V. drugs can vary in purity, potency and the way chemicals are combined.
Without adequate quality control and careful supervision of care, the authorities say,
the medications may be ineffective or create imbalances that pave the way for the virus
to mutate, developing resistance. Two of the 27 manufacturers are in Thailand,
where an estimated 84,000 people are not receiving antiretroviral treatment.
But the Thai government has exported $3 million of H.I.V. drugs, the report said.
Dr. Lange, the International AIDS Society president, said the percentage of infected
Thai people receiving antiretroviral treatment was "strikingly low."
"In Asia, the availability of drugs is far outstripping the capacity to deliver them,"
Mr. Frost said in an interview. Also, he said, "many questions linger about the relative
safety and consistency of these drugs."
China has fewer than 200 doctors trained to treat the estimated 840,000 people infected
with H.I.V. Last year, China offered free treatment for 5,000 patients. But health workers
handed patients pills without counseling. Within weeks, 20 percent to 40 percent of the
patients stopped taking the drugs, Mr. Frost said. The combination of drugs used by the
Chinese apparently led to a high rate of unwanted side effects, he said.
The Treat Asia report, which will be published on the organization's Web site (www.treatasia.org)
beginning on Sunday, also follows a decision in June by the World Health Organization to drop
two generic H.I.V. drugs from its list of approved treatments.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/08/international/asia/08aids.html 【The New York Times > Breaking News, World News & Multimedia】
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