Agence France Presse
HEADLINE: Italian group appeals for cheap drug access in Africa
DATELINE: ROME, Nov 2
BODY: Thousands of Africans die from sleeping sickness, a deadly nervous system disease, every year because they cannot afford the necessary medication, while the same product is found in an expensive US skin cream, an Italian medical conference heard on Friday.
"It's not only sad, but frustrating and outrageous to see someone die before your very eyes because for economic reasons they lack the medication that can save their lives, and then the medication is used for aesthetic purposes," said Chiara Castellani, opening a conference of Italian medical volunteers in Assise. The controversial issue of providing cheap drug access to countries suffering public health catastrophes, mostly by manipulating patents, is slated to be one of the main issues at next week's World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial meeting in Doha.
Some 70,000 people die every year of sleeping sickness, medically known as African trypanosomiasis, every year, mainly in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, and Sudan, Castellani was quoted by the Misna news agency as saying.
Some people are reduced to treating themselves with potentially deadly arsenic, she said, because they cannot afford the efloritine that is used to cure the disease.
Efloritine is one of the main ingredients in a cream for removing facial hair, sold in the United States for 42 dollars (46 euros) for 30 grams, Castellani said.
The United States has been criticized for its role in protecting patents and restricting the availability of generic drugs to developing countries suffering from epidemics like AIDS.:
