This article, “New Regimens to Prevent Tuberculosis in Adults with HIV Infection,” discusses the new ways to prevent people living with HIV form getting Tuberculosis. Since the majority of the time when people have HIV they die from something other than the virus, such as Tuberculosis, this is important. An experiment was done to test three new drug regimens that could be more potent than what they are giving now, which is soniazid. In the experiment people living with HIV in South Africa were given “receive rifapentine (900 mg) plus isoniazid (900 mg) weekly for 12 weeks, rifampin (600 mg) plus isoniazid (900 mg) twice weekly for 12 weeks, isoniazid (300 mg) daily for up to 6 years (continuous isoniazid), or isoniazid (300 mg) daily for 6 months (control group).” Their findings were that it lowered the chances of getting Tuberculosis by 32-64%. These findings may be great, but nowhere in the article did it mention the price that the people would have to pay to get this new regiment of prevention. It may work better, but if it costs too much, or really anything at all in the case of South Africa, the access to these new drugs will not be available. It truly does not matter how much better the drug is than the previous because it is still not accessible to the people. Uneducated people do not know how important prevention is when you have HIV and your immune system is suppressed anyway. They just know people are dying from AIDs. If there was a way to get this to the people for very little or no charge, this would be an amazing thing. Very little people would die from HIV induced Tuberculosis. However, everything costs money, and the regimens have to be maintained and taken for months at a time. There is no way to make sure the regiments are going to be taken properly for 3-6 months. If only there were a way to make amazing new discoveries, like this one, possible to be used to their full potential.
While these new regimens sound great, you bring up two very good points about access and education. Having such drugs exist is good for the rich and those in places where they can access the medicine, but people who arguably need it the most will not have access to it, whether it is out of their price range, or if a clinic is too far away. Education is also integral because it would prevent so many people from getting HIV/AIDS in the first place. Education would also help people manage their lives with HIV/AIDS and they can learn how HIV/AIDS spreads. Much headway has been made on the HIV/AIDS front, but more progress is necessary in order to reach everyone in the world affected by this epidemic.
ReplyDeletePharmaceutical drugs are very expensive and these new drug might be helpfully but are no use if people can’t have access to them. The people who are being affected by TB or other disease don’t have the money to afford drugs and get access to them. Also, the regimen of these drugs seems to be taken very precisely. You make a good point that the drugs might not be taken constantly. Even though the drugs might help, both money and timing will be an issue.
ReplyDeleteThis medicine seems like it would be a great idea, but I do not believe it is very beneficial. The reason it is not very beneficial is because people will not be able to use them. If people are not educated enough on how to use the medicine, they should not be able to use it because that can cause lots of harm. It also is not very helpful because it is hard to access. The poor people who need the medicine most have the hardest time getting to it because they can not afford it.
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