Activists mobilize against Argentina's Macri for defunding HIV prevention, treatment programs

Last edited Sat Jan 27, 2018, 05:34 PM - Edit history (1)

Health and LGBT advocacy groups demonstrated in front of the Argentine Health Ministry in Buenos Aires yesterday in order to protest deep cutbacks enacted recently on HIV/AIDS prevention and treatments budgets.

The Health Ministry informed provincial health authorities on January 12, in a letter signed by the head of the Directorate of AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Sergio Maulen, that "due to various difficulties presented in the purchase process, Abacavir/Lamivudine, Darunavir, Zidovudine Syrup, Efavirenz, and Dolutegravir will suffer a delay in their acquisition of approximately one month."

"We ask that the policies of the Ministry of Health and the HIV Directorate be enforced," said Bruno Barletta, of the advocacy group Defense of the Human Rights of AIDS Patients (ADHES). "We are going to seek an answer from the Ministry, where they can reverse the situation so that people can continue with their treatment and sustain their quality of life."

Some 50,000 HIV-positive individuals in Argentina rely on state-subsidized anti-retroviral drugs and medicine, through a National AIDS Program established in 1993 - one of the first in the region.

A 2007 law expanded the program and included the free distribution of condoms, such that by 2015 free condoms were available in 2,900 locations nationwide and 75% of pharmacies reported having a full supply of HIV treatment medicines.

The program's success in curbing the growth of HIV/AIDS led the World Bank to applaud Argentina in 2014 as “the country that stopped AIDS with the word 'free'.”

Progress has slowed under the right-wing Mauricio Macri administration, however. The HIV directorate budget has been cut by approximately 15% a year in real terms since Macri took office two years ago. The Access to Anti-Retroviral Drugs Observatory denounced that the Health Ministry had virtually ceased buying anti-retrovirals as early as 2016.

Activists attribute the policy shift to far-right Health Ministry advisers such as Dr. Abel Albino, whose lucrative Health Ministry consultancy contract was recently renewed.

An abstinence advocate who considers sex "addictive" and homosexuality "a disease," Dr. Albino opposes free distribution of morning-after pills and condoms as "assisted fornication plans," while railing against "the tyranny of masturbation."

This policy shift against prevention and treatment has earned the rebuke of even some of Macri's allies.

Speaking during his popular cable news round table show Intratables, host Santiago del Moro revealed that he had reached out to Health Ministry officials for an explanation. "An administration official told me that it was because of the Church; (prevention programs) bother them," he said.

"It can't believe this! This is 2018!"

At: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.diarioregistrado.com%2Fsociedad-%2Fmovilizacion-en-reclamo-al-gobierno-por-la-falta-de-medicamentos-para-pacientes-con-vih_a5a6b8f92a4d76178ffbd9441&edit-text=

Demonstrators protest suspension of HIV medication programs. "Health is not a business deal."