Press release - EATG launches Emergency Guidance on ART forced treatment interruptions due to drug unavailability

Belgrade, Thursday 13th October 2011 – The European AIDS Treatment Group guidelines “Emergency guidance on ART forced treatment interruptions due to drug unavailability (forced stock-outs) for people living with HIV and their care providers in Europe and Central Asia” launched today at the 13th AIDS Conference in Belgrade, come at an especially critical time, when HIV advocates and UN agencies register antiretroviral (ARV) treatment interruptions due to stock-outs in several countries within Europe and Central Asia.

"We have recurring stock-outs, especially in Central and Eastern Europe, for multiple reasons such as bad planning, bad communication between departments, Ministries not understanding the importance of continuous treatment and other reasons, and the problem is moving to diagnostics, making monitoring difficult to impossible", explained Brian West from the Board of Directors of the EATG.

This guidance, issued by the EATG seeks to inform and provide assistance to people living with HIV and their care-takers in case of an ARV treatment interruption. The EATG works on removing and preventing treatment interruptions and we call on national authorities, along with technical support providers and donors, to improve
Forecast and timely and sufficient funding allocation,
Efficacy of resources first of all, and facilitate price negotiations
Procurement and supply management of ARV and other medicines.

David Haerry, EATG member, stated today "we realised that the problems were not singular events, but some countries are affected over a longer period of time. Therefore, we come up with guidance for the patient community and their organisations. The guidance should help them to be better equipped when problems occur, but also help understanding when interruptions are problematic and when not."

The reasons why stock-outs have been reported in a number of European countries were discussed today, during the 13th AIDS Conference (EACS) in Belgrade, Serbia. The session “Managing HIV when Resources are Limited” gave an overview of the challenges of sustaining ART in resource-limited countries and an overview of current treatment interruptions in different countries, such as Ukraine and Romania.

ARV treatment interruptions cause harm to the individual patient and to public health, increases the costs of treatment, and constitute a violation of the human rights of people living with HIV. We do hope that the scientific community, main political leaders and donors will take this opportunity to declare their support to this guidance, and to keep their commitment to tackle the causes and consequences of ARV forced treatment interruptions in Europe and Central Asia.

Other languages here.

Contacts:
Brian West, EATG Secretary - brian.west@eatg.org / + 44 77 6666 4805
David Haerry - david@haerry.org / +41 79 712 5759