Symptoms of karposis sarcoma started showing on this patient shortly after she started taking medication. She is going to start quimiotherapy. Photograph by Patrick Meinhardt
Issue brief |

Stopping senseless deaths

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Photograph by Patrick Meinhardt

Overcoming access barriers to affordable, lifesaving diagnostics and treatments for HIV and opportunistic infections

The world is working towards achieving the 90-90-90 HIV treatment targets by 2020. In 2017, more people than ever – 21.7 million of the world’s 36.9 million HIV-positive people – were receiving antiretroviral treatment (ART). Yet there are persistent – and deadly – gaps in the global response to HIV/AIDS that undermine progress against the epidemic: 25% of people living with HIV do not know their status and only 59% are receiving ART. Millions of people still remain at risk for opportunistic infections (OIs) and death.

This technical brief analyses access barriers to affordable, lifesaving diagnostics and treatments for HIV and OIs, including adult and paediatric formulations of dolutegravir – a highly effective and tolerable HIV integrase inhibitor that replaces efavirenz in first-line treatment regimens. Updated antiretroviral (ARV) drug pricing information is also provided.

Additional publications in the Untangling the Web report series are available here.

Learn more about MSF’s work to improve access to lifesaving HIV treatment.