Developing Countries’ Infrastructures Must Be Improved for Successful Antiretroviral Drug Delivery, Letter to Editor Says
The drug distribution infrastructure in developing countries, particularly in Africa, must be improved in order to successfully deliver antiretroviral drugs to HIV-positive patients who need them, Chris Wright, who works with the DELIVER project, a USAID-funded effort to strengthen health logistics systems in developing countries, writes in a Washington Post letter to the editor. Wright, who is responding to a Post opinion piece by World Health Organization Director-General Jong-Wook Lee and UNAIDS Executive Director Peter Piot, says that although Lee and Piot should be commended for their recognition of the challenges of providing antiretroviral drugs in developing countries, "they missed one of the most difficult and unappreciated problems facing developing countries: lack of infrastructure to deliver lifesaving medicines." Developing and maintaining a dependable supply of "such high-demand drugs" as antiretrovirals is "critical," Wright says. He says that many drug delivery systems are unable to reliably provide "even the most essential medicines" to existing hospitals and clinics, "let alone prevent diversion or theft" of the drugs (Wright, Washington Post, 10/3).
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