Should ARVs be a human right?

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Anti-retrovirals should be classified as human right. Everything should be done to enable people with the virus get the treatment.ARVs should be made available to every hospital or testing center. It is unfortunate that some people with the virus try to escape the treatment for reasons best known to themselves even if it is available.The drugs should be given immediately after the person is tested and found positive.

There are waiting lists for AIDS drugs in the USA--that's because unlike European social democracies, the USA decided to surrender health care to the private market.
The question isn't about health being a human right--we can quibble about what rights mean and what they don't mean--but whether states should provide health care to those living within their borders and whether the international community should subsidize health care in poor nations that cannot provide services on their own.
Even in this economic crisis, money has flowed like water to the Greek economy, AIG, Chrysler, billions in bailouts--yet, several thousand poor people with AIDS in the USA can't get drugs and millions more around the world are in the same plight.
Our priorities are simply askew--your own Nye Bevan said it well: No society can legitimately call itself civilised if a sick person is denied medical aid because of lack of means.
It was true 60 years ago and its still true today.
We have the resources to provide AIDS drugs to all who need them, to strengthen health systems around the world, yet, our leaders have other priorities.

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I wish that A.R.V. will be classified as a human right, but.....I would like to know whom is the way to covered the costs of the purported drugs to everyone in the world with HIV-Aids....

I know that many in the United States are going to be without their A.R.V. Drugs when they lose their insurances and public medical services grants run out of money....

(d)

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I am a Zimbabwean who is currently in the US visiting. I am HIV positive and it has been very difficult for me to access ARV treatment back home in ZImbabwe, especially the drug Atripla that I am taking. Atripla is currently not available in Zimbabwe.

If I go back how am I going to access this medication ? If I want to stay in the US I will not be able to get a residence permit on humanitarian grounds so that I can be able to access HIV treatment here in th US. In the United Kingdom HIV persons are able to access treatment freely without any hassles. Why cant one access HIV treatment anywhere in the world without any problems?

i am desperate for medication and I am kindly asking for assistance right now.

Making it a basic human right will make it better for those affected to have good access to the medication. let governments take it as an obligation which if fails to be delivered will command penalties.

Here in UK the availability of ARV is not an issue, but managing stress and high cost of nutritious food has made us to suffer more. That is as a result of the authorities failure to include patients to draw from disability living allowance which has impoverished HIV + patients who need to have a good rest and diet to complement their treatment. We therefore want HIV patients to have access to DLA funds to enable us live longer and have a stress free lives. Otherwise our lives are shortened even with access to ARV.

ARVS need no consideration as special human right. Health is generally is a Human right.why then talk about ARVs, are there more important than other medications.they should not be considered a special Human right since humans already have a right to health.

Housing, education, food, jobs, water and health care are in one or other way human rights in most constitutions. ARV falls under health care. I wonder if anyone has ever taken statistics of how long congresses, senates and national assemblies and alike spend discussing people standard of living as opposed to big business related issues.

The availability , accessibility , affordability of health care services in general streams from different avenues with different level of participation.The introductionof social schemes to stimulate the availability, accessibility and affordability of heatlh care services in the world with special call to developing countries will at high percentage increase the affordability part of it. hence introduce the new parameter of positive health care seeking behaviour in persons. can we achieve this through the social scheme??

In as much as focusing too heavily on treatment can also be problematic if it detracts too much from efforts to prevent new HIV infections.

I think we cannot ignore the fact that there are already infected persons who are highly depending on the ARVs.

With it being a human right many Infected people would be re-leaved of the financial barrier to... see more universal treatment access which is that once people begin taking ARVs, they must continue taking them for life, because there will be commitment on the part of governments or international donors to guarantee treatment for many decades, for every person on ARVs.

On the other hand treatment programmes will focus on the vital tasks of monitoring and patient retention, because many patients have eventually died from treatment failure.

Yes. Such a development would compel governments especially those in Africa to raise commitment towards increasing expenditure on health. That's Good News that all of us should embrace.
It sounds like having a right to good health; do we need to debate that?

In SSA, 22.4 million adults and children were estimated to live with HIV in 2008. Uganda alone the estimate stands at 1.2million with the women disproportionately affected and accounting for 57% of adults living with HIV and 1million children orphaned by the devastating epidemic. The life span of persons infected is shortened because of inacessible and inadequate stocks of ARVs. Uganda has been leading in best practices related to HIV/AIDS management but the current prevalance trends proved that wrong, and this has made the government to start looking at adverse policies like the draft bill criminalizing of transmission, mandatory disclosure, offenses and penalties. This background tells everyone that we can't allow death to keep living with us yet the capacity is there to prevent or control it. Making ARVs a human right shall not only hold governments accountable in providing services but saving lives as well which is a core principle on human rights.

The right to life is a basic human right.

I wonder why the Western world makes everything human rights and yet are abusing HUMAN RIGHTS in the Mid-east.

It's all very well to push for access to ARVs as a human right but who foots the bill?

ARVs to me should be distributed freely and considered as a human right, this will help even the poor to live long in order to provide some basic needs to his/her children after death. this will help the parents put some plans or build house, or set some business to his children as he waits for his loing death.

In southern Sudan, HIV/AIDS percentage is increasing rapidly and most part of southern Sudan is remote and unaccessible, people living in the country side are suffering and dying just 4 years after contracting HIV and i believe once the ARVs are considered a Human right then it will help root out poverty among the HIV/AIDS victim who spend alot in ARVs.

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Why not. Of course anything that has to do with health must be considered as a human rights issue. Those HIV positive patient should not only have the right to ARVs but they also have right to good food and proper counselling. All these are human rights previleges, they should have. Yes ARV is human rights for People living with HIV.

i think it's better and wiser to talk about cure for hiv. all the current ARV are more dangerous than the hiv itself. come on, where are all the medical scientists? i'm dying of side effects from atripla. i was better off when i wasn't on any treatment. please lets talk about the cure.

Life saving treatment should be available to all - not just the rich. ALL religions call for people to be treated equally so please don't claim to be religious if you don't support helping everyone.

These drugs are expensive. Who is going to have to pay for them if they are deemed a right?

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Who has the international authority to classify anything as a human right? If so, and it will cost money, who pays? And what if I, and others, totally disagree with some absurd declaration and refuse to accept or abide by it, what will be the result? I read a lot about demands for human rights but I don't see anyone demanding human responsibility. I feel that if one has rights then one must have responsibility as well.

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