More Africans could be treated for HIV/Aids if lab trials stopped

Injecting cash into local HIV and Aids care in Africa instead of into costly lab research would mean more HIV patients could be treated, a new study suggests. In fact testing the side effects of medicines and to see how well they work does not help people with HIV and Aids to live longer, reveals results from a six-year clinical trial of 3,500 people. A third more people could be treated, with the money saved by redirecting the cash to grass roots care in local areas, one doctor said. The ‘Dart’ study looked at scientists in Uganda, Zimbabwe and Britain and monitored about 3,500 patients over a period of six years. Its results show the regular tests have either no benefit or very little benefit to survival rates.

More than six million people in Africa needed care for HIV and Aids, but only 2.2 million are actually receiving it, Dr Peter Mugyenyi told the BBC. In Africa, laboratory tests are very hard to carry out, the research suggests. But they are done routinely in the west and while there is still no cure for HIV/Aids, anti-retroviral drugs have been found to stop the disease from developing further. “We now understand that the intensive laboratory tests which are routinely done in the West only bring marginal benefits,” Dr Peter Mugyenyi said.

In rural Africa, regular laboratory tests are very costly and call for high-tech laboratories that are often only available in cities many of which are several hours' drive away from the villages where people with HIV/Aids live. Without having to run routine laboratory tests, it would be far easier and cheaper to treat HIV/Aids patients in village clinics, say doctors instead of making the sick patients travel to miles to get to cities, where most treatment in Africa is provided. Trained healthcare workers can offer patients close supervision and support, and give HIV treatment to many more patients close to where they live, the report says. "I would describe [this study] as a breakthrough, because we now understand that the intensive laboratory tests which are routinely done in the West only bring marginal benefits,” Dr Mugyenyi told the broadcaster. "We could actually do nearly as well by very good clinical monitoring of patients, making sure that trained healthcare providers look at their symptoms and signs and determine whether treatment needs to be changed or whether they need to have any modification in their care and treatment."

By Hayley Jarvis for SOS Children