Mexican President Vicente Fox this week announced that Mexico will make free antiretroviral treatment available for all people with AIDS, according to an Associated Press report.
The announcement follows Mexico’s participation in a Latin American purchasing syndicate that secured substantial discounts on antiretroviral drugs from generic manufacturers (
click here to read a report on that deal).
Details of which drugs will be used, how treatment will be monitored and who will be eligible were not released. Approximately 10,000 Mexicans already receive free or subsidised antiretroviral treatment.
One unanswered question is how many people in Mexico will require treatment. 4,297 cases of AIDS were diagnosed in 2001, the most recent year for which WHO has information, and a cumulative total of 51,914 cases had been diagnosed to the end of 2001 (of which 29,962 had been diagnosed prior to 1997, and 4,297 were diagnosed in 2001). This suggests a minimum of 10,000 – 15,000 eligible cases, based on the assumption of two year survival after an AIDS diagnosis and a steady level of new diagnoses in 2002 and 2003. The Mexican Health Department estimates that between 116,000 and 177,000 people are already living with HIV, and it is estimated that headline AIDS cases may only capture around half the actual AIDS burden in Mexico.