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There are more than 33 million people living with HIV/AIDS worldwide, according to the World Health Organization, the majority of them in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2007, 2.5 million children under 15 years old were living with HIV/AIDS, with 1,150 becoming infected every day. Without treatment, half of all infants with HIV will die before their second birthday.
The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is transmitted between humans through the exchange of body fluids such as blood, breast milk, vaginal secretions and semen. HIV is most commonly spread by sexual contact, but can also be transmitted through childbirth, breastfeeding and sharing needles. HIV gradually weakens the immune system, usually over a three to ten year period, making it difficult to fight cancer and opportunistic infections such as candidiasis, pneumonia and tuberculosis (TB). If HIV is not treated, an infected person eventually becomes very ill and may die. The advanced stage of HIV infection is called the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome or AIDS.
TB is the infection that kills the most among people living with HIV/AIDS. Today one-third of HIV-positive people around the world are co-infected with TB (according to WHO).
Monica, infected with both HIV and multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis, or MDR-TB, is taking her drugs.
© Brendan Bannon
A combination of drugs, known as anti-retrovirals, help combat the disease and enable people to live longer, healthier lives without their immune system rapidly declining.
MSF HIV/AIDS programmes offer HIV testing with pre- and post-test counselling, treatment and prevention of opportunistic infections, prevention of mother-to-child transmission and provision of anti-retrovirals for people in the advanced clinical stages of the disease. Our programmes also generally include education and awareness activities to help people understand how to prevent the spread of the virus.
MSF began treating people living with HIV in the 1990s and started anti-retroviral treatment programmes in Cameroon, Thailand, and South Africa in 2000. MSF now operates HIV/AIDS projects in 32 countries and provides ARV treatment to more than 100,000 HIV-positive patients, including 7,000 children.
In the field, MSF doctors are constantly frustrated by the lack of adequate medical tools. In response, Médecins Sans Frontières set up the MSF Access Campaign in 1999 to improve access to existing medical tools and to stimulate the development of urgently needed better tools. Campaign for Acces to essential medecins.
MSF is well known for its humanitarian medical work, but it has also produced important research based on its field experience with vulnerable populations. This website archives MSF's scientific articles and makes them available free, with full text, and in an easily searchable format. MSF Field Research website.
For 30 years, MSF has directly witnessed the human cost of the lack of drugs for neglected diseases and has raised its voice against this inequity. In 2003, seven organisations from around the world joined forces to establish DNDi, Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative.