JOHANNESBURG, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- South Africa Friday announced that it had signed an agreement with global partners to ensure inexpensive and effective HIV/AIDS treatment.
This was announced by the South African Minister of Health Aaron Motsoaledi on Friday. The move would ensure the availability of affordable, generic, single-pill HIV treatment regimen containing dolutegravir (DTG).
The new fixed-dose combination will be available to low and middle-income countries at a reduced price of 75 U.S. dollars per person, per year. Motsoaledi said the move would accelerate treatment rollout and ensure people living with HIV access high-quality antiretroviral therapy.
"The considerable price reductions could yield savings of up to R11.7 billion over the next six years for us, which means that we can initiate additional patients on treatment with the same amount of resources," said the minister.
South Africa will introduce the new fixed-dose combination of three drugs, Tenofovir, Lamivudine and Dolutegravir (TLD) in April 2018. Patients who follow the treatment are more likely to be virally suppressed, which means that they are not likely to transmit the virus to others, Motsoaledi added.
South Africa is collaborating with the government of Kenya, Clinton Health Access Initiative, Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
South Africa has 3.9 million patients on HIV treatment as of the end of August. Enditem
