Harare, 10 July 2003 -- A workshop on scaling up access to care and treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in 17 East and Southern African countries ended Thursday in Harare, Zimbabwe, with the adoption of recommendations aimed at achieving universal access to antiretroviral treatment (ART) by people who need it. 
Workshop participants agreed that countries should:

• establish or revise national ART coverage targets with the guidance of the global target (reaching 3 million PLWHA by 2005); 
• review their trade and intellectual property rights polices and legislations to provide an enabling environment to increase affordability of medicines without compromising quality; 
• ensure procurement of high quality, low-priced antiretroviral (ARV) medicines and diagnostic materials; 
• fully utilize existing infrastructure to improve access to care and treatment services, while concurrently strengthening health systems; 
• use existing human resources to scale up treatment access while urgently expanding capacity through retention of existing staff, recruitment of additional staff, and skills development; 
• review legislations and regulations to allow different cadres of health workers and non-health categories to undertake various tasks in care delivery; 
• empower communities and PLWHA by enhancing "treatment literacy" through information, education and communication about treatment opportunities; 
• apply the framework agreed during the workshop to develop/update implementation plans.

There was also agreement among participants that governments should lead the response and play a more active role in coordinating partners' contributions both within countries and across borders. In addition, governments as well local and international partners should sustain advocacy efforts to ensure long-term commitments to support ongoing treatment and care for PLWHA.

On the role of development partners, participants agreed that partners such as WHO, UNICEF and ECSA, among others, should undertake activities related to price monitoring and information-sharing.

For their part, development partners represented at the workshop committed themselves to proactively supporting countries to achieve their scale-up targets, provide technical inputs according to their expertise and comparative advantages, and coordinate their efforts through existing forums. They will also clearly define their contribution to regional and global targets in support of countries.

One recommendation exhorted PLWHA to be involved in all stages of planning, while another called for the establishment of global and regional mechanisms for monitoring the quality of ARV medicines.

In attendance on the last day of the workshop were senior policy makers including one Vice Minister of Health, Permanent Secretaries and Directors of Medical Services from seven countries.

According to WHO estimates, East and Southern African countries recorded an estimated 18.6 million cases of HIV/AIDS by the end of 2002, with 2.7 million of these needing urgent ART.

For further information, please contact

Samuel T. Ajibola
Public Information and Communication Unit 
World Health Organization - Regional Office for Africa 
P.O. Box 6 Brazzaville, Congo.

E-mail: ajibolas [at] afro.who.int

Tel:+ 47 241 39378; Fax: + 47 241 39513

Tel. in Harare: 091 231 405