Salvadoran Government Begins ARV Therapy

by Richard Stern

In San Salvador, El Salvador’s capital, Odir Miranda, Director of the non-governmental organization ATLACATL, has announced that his government’s health care system, the Instituto Salvadoreño de Seguro Social (ISSS) has finally begun to provide six people with AIDS with anti-retroviral therapy. The six are part of a group of 36 that won a decision handed down by the Interamerican Human Rights commission last February ordering the government to provide them with combination therapy.

But the government delayed complying for nearly a year and it was just weeks ago that the six people with AIDS began receiving their medications. Miranda expressed concern as to when treatment would begin for the other surviving plaintiffs of the lawsuit. Nearly half of the plaintiffs have died since the original case was file with the Human Rights Commission in September of 1999.

A source in the Salvadoran government who did not wish to be identified told this writer that the government has in fact signed purchase orders for anti-retroviral medications for about 200 People Living with AIDS and that product delivery will begin early next year. In total it is estimated that three thousand Salvadorans live with AIDS, of which less than half are enrolled in the ISSS.

Said Miranda : "We are pleased that government is finally complying. We are worried about the others in our group and all the others who need treatment right now. We are also worried about interruptions in the supply of medications."

Richard Stern is Director of the Agua Buena Human Rights Association in San José, Costa Rica.

Agua Buena Human Rights Association
San Jóse, Costa Rica
Tel/Fax : 506-234-2411
e-mail : rastern@sol.racsa.co.cr