ABSTRACT
Most PHAs in Europe and North America are now enjoying a new lease of life, thanks to the new antiretroviral drugs. These drugs attack HIV, the retrovirus that causes AIDS, at various stages in its life cycle. Introduced widely in 1966 and developing rapidly since then, these ‘Lazarus drugs’ have often allowed previously incapacitated PHAs to recover their strength and return to work. But they are expensive: a one month supply of the combination of three or four types of drug-complex drug regimens called Highly Active Antiretroviral Treatment or HAART-can cost 15,000 US dollars or more. Of course, in the industrialized world, the state or insurance usually covers such costs. But in countries where average annual per-capita health-related expenditure may be under 5 US dollars, clearly such drugs are inaccessible to all but a very few PHAs.
