The New York times reports that “Africans Outdo Americans in Following AIDS Therapy.” This is a serious issue because failure to take medicines regularly can result in new, more virulent strains of AIDS that are resistant to medication. The statistics show 90% of Africans sticking to their pill regimes compared to 70% of Americans. But what is really interesting is that much of this difference has to do with the fact that it is easier for the Africans to stick to their regimes because they have less pills to take:
Compliance has become easier because drugmakers from India and elsewhere are beginning to make triple-therapy cocktails that come in as few as two pills a day. (These are not available in the United States yet because of patent problems — no Western company makes all three drugs for an ideal cocktail.)
Yet another example of why AIDS medicine should be in the public domain.
