Anti-retroviral drugs. which block the action of viruses like HIV. are the most effective manner to treat HIV/AIDS and the only way to transform HIV from a death sentence to a chronic but stable illness. Patients taking the latest combination treatments can survive at least a decade.
Although widely available in the developed world, the drugs are expensive and difficult to distribute among patients in the poorest nations of the world
Only 75,000 of HIV-infected Africans are receiving the treatments out of the only 4 million who need them
"That is really not acceptable and we have no chance of halting this epidemic f we're not going to make sure that everybody who needs it has access to treatment." Piot said.
However many of the largest drug companies have said that lowering the price of their products would limit the research necessary to develop new drugs, and perhaps someday a cure
Sourced: Scheleicher, Annie World AIDS Day.