HIV drugs not reaching African patients

HARARE: Efforts to get lifesaving antiretrovial drugs to HIV-positive patients in many sub-Saharan African countries are routinely failing at “the last mile,” an international medical group said Monday.

Despite stocks being available, the drugs often do not reach clinics because of “cumbersome procedures, logistical challenges or lack of resources,” Medicins Sans Frontieres said in a report released at the International Conference on AIDS and STI (sexually transmitted infections) in Africa in Harare.