"We all have AIDS": case for reducing the cost of HIV drugs to zero  Commentary: The reality of treating HIV and AIDS in poor countries  Commentary: Most South Africans cannot afford anti-HIV drugs

doi:10.1136/bmj.324.7331.214

BMJ 2002;324:214-218 ( 26 January )

Education and debate

"We all have AIDS": case for reducing the cost of HIV drugs to zero

Commentary: The reality of treating HIV and AIDS in poor countries

Commentary: Most South Africans cannot afford anti-HIV drugs

"We all have AIDS": case for reducing the cost of HIV drugs to zero

Donald Berwick, president and chief executive officer.

Institute for Healthcare Improvement, 375 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02215, USA

dberwick@ihi.org

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

An editorial last year in the Washington Post challenged directors of drug companies to reduce the cost of HIV drugs in poorcountries to zero. Here the reproduced editorial is accompaniedby a discussion about why it was written and the response to it.We invited comment from one of the named directors and from aman with AIDS who refuses to take antiretroviral drugs until theyare available to the public sector in South Africa

Last year I wrote a guest editorial for the Washington Post in which I challenged the world's pharmaceutical companies tocut the cost of HIV drugs to zero in poor countries (see box onnext page).¹ Here I explain why I wrote it and describe someof the responses it provoked.

Table Removed (Available Only in the Full Text)

The prologue

People living in poverty being denied access to modern health care is a form of violent, systematic social deprivation thatwe, as a . . . [Full text of this article]

CiteULike

Complore

Connotea

Del.icio.us Add to Digg

Digg

Technorati What's this?

Relevant Articles

Drug companies should make HIV drugs free to poor countries
BMJ 2002 324: 0. [Full Text]

What did you do in the war against AIDS, granddad?
BMJ 2002 324: i. [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

Yamey, G., Rankin, W. W (2002). AIDS and global justice. BMJ 324: 181-182 [Full text]

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

We all have AIDS - need for a "Zero Cost" campaign website ?: John M Logan
bmj.com, 25 Jan 2002 [Full text]
Is public health or drugs the priority?: Chris Gunstone
bmj.com, 30 Jan 2002 [Full text]
United Nations and AIDS treatment: M. Poli
bmj.com, 31 Jan 2002 [Full text]
HIV vaccine debate is pointless: Richard J Lyus
bmj.com, 5 Mar 2002 [Full text]