The Government through the Ministry of Health and Medical Services and the National AIDS/STD Control Programme (NASCOP) under the now ¡demoted and transferred¢ Director, Dr. Mohammed stand accused for misinforming the public on the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the country.
Other that need to provide ¡real answers¢ to Kenyans include the National AIDS Control Council (NACC), Kenya Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), National Public Health Laboratory Services (NPHLS), Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), National Coordinating Agency for Population and Development ( NCAPD), US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the United Nations (UN).
The alleged ¡statistical error¢ that was recently provided by NASCOP indicated that in the year 2003 that rate has been 6.7% compared to 7.8% this year. The other Kenya AIDS Indicator Survey conducted in the year 2007 indicated that 7.4% of Kenyans are living with the virus.
It further stated that about 1.4 million Kenyans are living with the virus yet reliable information from government and NASCOP sources indicate that the prevalence rate now stands at 13% and those infected are about 2.5 million Kenyans. Projections indicate that by the end of the year the rate may even reach 15% due to the aftermath of the post-election related rape cases and unprotected sex during the skirmishes.
Come January 2009, the year NASCOP would be releasing a more detailed report on the HIV/AIDS prevalence that would make Kenyans understand the ethics behind such ¡scientific¢ researches.
On the Other hand pharmaceutical companies and foreign investor ought to encourage thorough research initiatives than to dwell on manufacturing anti-retroviral drugs for commercial purposes. Poor research initiatives only complicate management of diseases including HIV/AIDS.
One of our pioneer researchers of the project, Dr. Omu Anzala, helped make the initial discovery of resistance levels observed among commercial sex workers in Nairobi¢s Majengo, Kibera and Korogocho slums. The study suggest that when the sex workers were not exposed to the infection they turn out to be HIV+ but as they get re-exposed they turn out to be negative. Continues exposure to HIV weakens the virus as the WBCs become very active. The lower risk group who use protection than the higher risk group that that not necessarily use, come from affluent suburbs than the slums.
In the 1980, developed and developing countries negotiated the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreements that touch on research and drug manufacturing as part of the URUGUAY Round of global trade tasks. Ratifies in 1994, TRIPS set forth a minimum standard on intellectual property rights protection. Certainly most counties including Kenya were able to bring their domestic ¡original¢ patent legislation into compliance with TRIPS after the 2005 deadline period.
With the current HIV/AIDS, as a public health crisis in the Sub-Saharan Africa region attention has to be focused and support given to Kenyan researchers by ¡foreign institutions¢ and NGOs suspending their intentions to claim patency rights. This ethical scientific flexibility would help save the region and the world at large.
This was after the member nations of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the International Community, including the United States declared in November 2001 that TRIPS permits less-developed countries, facing a genuine health-care crisis, to license compulsorily certain patented medicines, including anti-retroviral.
It is thus upon government and its affiliate stakeholders to put their acts rights for this pandemic is but a shadow of a disaster in the making.
For the Western world, is this another ¡Foreign Kenyanesis Research Imperfectus¢ coming to Kenya and Africa ?
Regards,
Mundia Mundia Jnr,
Clinical Physiatrist.
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Date: Mon, 4 Aug 2008 06:36:53 -0700 (PDT)
From: mundia mundia
Subject: SAFEGUARDING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS ON HIV/AIDS RESEARCH.