Expensive tests hamper AIDS drug uptake

Research presented at an AIDS conference in South Africa says that despite the availability of anti-AIDS drugs in Zambia since 2002, few people had joined the national treatment programme. Namposya Nampanya-Serpell, author of the research paper, "Access to Treatment and ARV Uptake in Zambia", remarked at the Second African Conference on Social Aspects of Access to Care and Treatment in Cape Town that just over 4,000 Zambians were currently on antiretroviral treatment. She told the UN news service, PlusNews, that although antiretrovirals were relatively cheap in Zambia, they were only accessible after both a CD4 test, costing US $40, and a viral load test, for US $30, were carried out. "The doctors that are responsible for the rollout of antiretroviral therapy insist on both tests, so the initial outlay is very expensive," Nampanya-Serpell said.