ABSTRACT
Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) had been trying –but up to that time without success –to start antiretroviral (ARV) treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS. Over the years, MSF has seen that patients in the South have less and less access to essential medicines. The medicines that are available for certain diseases are increasingly archaic, increasingly ineffective because of drug resistance, and increasingly lacking in genuine innovation, so that no new treatment becomes available, for example for Leishmaniasis and other diseases. Among health-oriented nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), there have been few recent issues more galvanizing than that of access to ARVs for the treatment of HIV/AIDS. MSF and a coalition of other NGOs –including Consumer Project on Technology (CPT), Health Action International (HAI), ACT UP, ACCESS in Thailand, Treatment Access Campaign (TAC) and OXFAM - have taken on this issue with a clarity of vision and an immediate fast-track impact previously unknown in international issues.
