PlanetAide Announces Cheap AIDS Meds for the Poorest Poor.

This week PlanetAide director Jack O. Weatherford announced a low-cost medicine program" that will benefit poor people with AIDS who are living in developing countries.

Minneapolis, Minnesota (PRWEB) July 1, 2003 -- This week PlanetAide director Jack O. Weatherford announced a low-cost medicine program" that will benefit poor people with AIDS who are living in developing countries.

We are not aware of any program like this that is both widely available and easily accessible" says Weatherford. Someone is now able to go to our website and make a tax-deductible contribution of $630 and purchase a years supply of (AIDS medications) for an indigent AIDS patient living in a developing country." The same medicine costs in excess of 10 times this amount in the United States and many AIDS patients pay $10,000 - $15,000 per year for this medicine.

Weatherford says, We think this is an excellent low-cost source of AIDS medications, and we have had several requests from immigrants to the United States who want to purchase low-cost medicine for their relatives back home who have AIDS." Weatherford goes on to say, We also think this provides our wealthy citizens the opportunity to make a tax-deductible donation while providing treatment and extending lives for poor AIDS patients that are otherwise without treatment."

The medicine that PlanetAide provides is called antiretroviral therapy" for AIDS patients. This medicine has been considered too costly for most AIDS patients living in developing countries. Only the most-wealthy in many developing countries have been able to afford this treatment. Antiretroviral therapy treatment has become widely available to AIDS patients in the United States and other developed countries. The use of these treatment options has resulted in significantly longer life expectancies and significantly less requirements for the services of hospitals, home health care agencies and nursing homes for seriously ill AIDS patients. This option has not been available for most AIDS patients in developing countries where 95% of AIDS cases exist.

When distributing donated medicine PlanetAide gives priority to AIDS patients in developing countries who are indigent, without treatment or assistance options, people subject to prejudice, and pregnant mothers who have AIDS. PlanetAide gives priority to pregnant mothers with AIDS because a pregnant mother who begins antiretroviral therapy, even in her third trimester, reduces her transmission rate for passing the HIV virus on to her infant from about 27% to less than 1%.

PlanetAide does require recipients of their medicine to be supervised by a medical doctor experienced in antiretroviral therapy. PlanetAide provides training in antiretroviral therapy for doctors from developing countries where there are no experienced medical personnel. Doctors from developing countries come to the United States for 3-month rotations with AIDS-experienced doctors who volunteer to train them. PlanetAide finds volunteer hosts who invite these visiting doctors into their homes for three months since a three-month trip to the United States is cost prohibitive to most of these doctors.

PlanetAide is a grassroots non-profit organization started in Minnesota in 2000 for the sole purpose of assisting indigent people with AIDS who live in developing countries. PlanetAides executive director Jack O. Weatherford is well aware of what it is like living with AIDS. He tested positive for the HIV virus in 1985 when he was living in San Francisco. I remember what it was like to be without treatment options, scared and living with a disease that people were ashamed to admit they had. Because of the great care and support I received, I have successfully lived this long without being hospitalized, and I am in good health. It is now time we pass this on." PlanetAide currently has volunteers in at least six different states and a board of directors representing four different countries. To find out more about PlanetAide and its programs, log onto www.planetaide.org.

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