THE 3 BY 5 INITIATIVE

 

 

 

“Lack of access to antiretroviral treatment is a global health emergency…To deliver antiretroviral therapy to the millions who need it, we must change the way we think and the way we act.”   

LEE JONG-WOO; Director General, WHO.

 

On World AIDS Day 20003, the WHO and UNAIDS announced a structured global initiative to reach antiretroviral therapy to 3 million people living with AIDS in developing countries by the year 2005. This was the first step in providing access to AIDS treatment to all those who need it around the world.

The epidemic is stronger than ever before: 30 million people have died of AIDS in the past two decades and 40 million more are currently infected. Currently only about 400, 00o people have access to antiretroviral drugs, which is a mere 8% of the total number in need. Unless we redouble our efforts at prevention and control, the epidemic will continue this cycle of destroying communities, health care systems, economies, and perhaps even nations.

Women and children make up a large proportion of the AIDS victims who are in need of treatment and support. The so-called ‘3 by 5’ Initiative focuses its efforts on HIV positive women. Although worldwide there are almost an equal percentage of men and women affected by the disease, in many parts of the world such as Sub-Saharan Africa young women and girls are at almost twice the risk as their male counterparts for contracting HIV. In many South African countries more than 1 in 5 pregnant women visiting antenatal clinics are HIV positive, and stands to infect her children during pregnancy, birth or breastfeeding.  These cases of vertical transmission represent a high proportion of the disease burden (700 000 children infected in 2003), and estimate about 14% of the new HIV cases each year. These infections are not only unacceptable, but also reasonably preventable. The principal obstacle to their prevention is the frequent lack of counseling and testing services, and inadequate public health services to spread awareness about how to avoid risk factors for vertical transmission.

With the 3 by 5 initiative, the WHO and it partners hope to identify key strategies and mechanisms for delivering antiretroviral therapy to AIDS victims, and in particular, to young women, girls and children. They have been chosen as a focus group because they carry a disproportionate burden of disease, and because they are most likely to utilize some of the key entry points for treatments such as antenatal clinics and services to prevent mother-to-child transmission.

WHO' s strategic framework for emergency scaling up of antiretroviral therapy contains 14 key strategic elements. These elements fall into 5 categories- the pillars of the 3 by 5 campaign:

 

Sourc Source: UNAIDS Website