The European Union has adopted a World Trade Organization (WTO) plan to allow poor countries to import cheaper, generic versions of patented drugs for diseases like HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, thus increasing poor people’s access to lifesaving medications (forbes.com/AFX News Limited, 11/19).
“The EU is firmly committed to ensure that in particular the least-developed countries have access to essential medicines at the lowest possible prices, in particular in their fight against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria,” said European foreign ministers in a statement.
The WTO agreement, reached in December 2005, modified an agreement on trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPS). However, two thirds of WTO members must ratify it for it to be approved. Before the EU adopted the plan, only a dozen countries had signed on to it, including the U.S., India and Japan.
Beth Benne, RN, is HIV negative, but
the virus has impacted her life. She currently supervises a biannual HIV/AIDS awareness week as
the director of the student health center at Pierce College, a
community commuter school in Woodland Hills, California.
Woman of the Month is supported by exclusive advertising from Gilead.
Overheard in the Women's Forum
"I recently met a guy who is negative. I did tell him about my status and he decided to kiss me anyway (we didn't go further than that). But a day later, he called and said that he actually had a mouth ulcer that time when we kissed and he was very worried. Asked if he can get the virus from me that way. For that moment, I felt so insulted and yet I felt so bad. It was my first time having a contact with a "negative" guy."
