By IPS Correspondents
OUAGADOUGOU, Oct 23 2005 (IPS)

For Zenabo Nikieme, a Burkinabé woman who has been HIV-positive since 2000, the future once again offers a glimmer of hope. Last year it was a very different story – something that prompted her to pen an open letter to Burkina Faso’s Minister of Health.

“I’m an HIV-positive widow and I have three children,” wrote the 35-year-old fruit vendor from the capital of Ouagadougou, who was advised to begin taking anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs).

“My doctor reassured me of the availability of these medicines – that they would be at the disposal of all patients without discrimination. But the reality in this country is totally different,” said the letter, which was published in the local press.

Thanks to a new treatment initiative, however, the drugs that Nikieme so urgently needs are no longer as elusive. The Treatment Acceleration Project (TAP), a pilot programme launched in three African countries, is enabling her and a number of other AIDS sufferers to take life-prolonging ARVs.

Apart from Burkina Faso, Ghana and Mozambique are also benefiting from the three-year scheme.

TAP was officially launched in March in Burkina Faso, while the first TAP treatments got underway in July; since then, close to 800 patients have received free drugs under the initiative. From now until December 2007, TAP will provide treatment to 7,000 people living with HIV/AIDS.

According to 2004 statistics from the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), HIV prevalence in Burkina Faso stands at 4.2 percent. An estimated 700,000 people are infected with the AIDS virus, of which 15 percent – around 100,000 – are critically ill and in need of treatment.

But, health officials say only about five percent of those who require medication have been able to start taking it – a situation blamed on the high cost of ARVs.

“Not only do the anti-retroviral treatments cost too much, despite any discounts, but the price of…medical examinations also keeps infected people from getting tested,” says Elise Sawadogo of Hope AIDS, a non-governmental organisation (NGO).

ARV treatment alone costs an average of 19 dollars a month. Add the expense of laboratory tests and this figure rises to 62 dollars – a huge expense for many in Burkina Faso, where 45 percent of people live on less than a dollar a day.

TAP, financed with an 18-million-dollar grant from the World Bank’s International Development Association, promises to improve matters – also to provide AIDS-related services such as HIV testing, treatment of opportunistic infections, and prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

Twenty-two districts have been equipped to dispense ARV treatment under the auspices of TAP, according to the health ministry.

About 20 associations and NGOs which work with AIDS sufferers will also assist the health ministry to run TAP – including the Alavi Association. Located in a suburb of Ouagadougou, this group is also active in eight other sites outside the capital.

“TAP helps to reduce the mortality rate of the population of people with HIV/AIDS, (who die) from the lack of drugs and treatment. Also…it allows thousands of people to go and get tested,” says Inoussa Zabsonre, a doctor at Alavi – where the start of TAP has seen an increase in the number of people requesting assistance, counseling and information.

Similar words come from Zakaria Zoungrana, assistant coordinator at the AIDSETI NGO, also located in Ouagadougou.

“The objective of TAP is to help us develop on a large scale and carry out a comprehensive treatment programme for people living with HIV/AIDS – while offering quality services that are effective, accessible and equitable,” she notes.

Looking beyond TAP, the government says its goal is to see the monthly cost of ARVs fall to 15 dollars.

A UNAIDS official who declined to be identified said that if possible, ARVs should be provided free of charge.

“The ideal for UNAIDS is free drugs,” the representative noted, but added that UNAIDS could not “impose formulas on the state”.

“We can’t impose such a vision…It’s all a question of organisation so that the less fortunate will have access to ARVs…”

Issa Kindo, a specialist in public health, believes free treatment is simply the starting point, however.

“I think that it is necessary to institute free treatment for all infected persons, safeguard their jobs (and) take charge of orphaned children’s education.”

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