The realization of the need to treat HIV has triggered a tidal wave of interest and activity. Let us use this momentum to begin to address a more comprehensive approach to basic health care in Africa as we proceed with the antiretroviral agenda. I am here for three main reasons and I will keep my remarks brief and to the point. First, I am enthusiastic about being an active participant in the dynamic process that will occur here in Kampala over the next two days and hopefully well beyond this meeting throughout Africa. Second, I am here to exhort us all to insure, in the process of attempting to explore ways to best provide treatment and other forms of care for HIV-infected Africans, that we gather important information that will be critical to the success of this program for Africans, both in the short and especially in the long run.
Sustainability is the critical issue here.
There are many important research questions that need to be asked and answered in the context of the delivery of care, including antiretroviral drugs, to Africans. This slide lists merely a few of these questions. On another note, there have been understandable and often justifiable concerns regarding research on HIV therapeutics in developing nations where such therapy is not readily available to the population at large. In such situations, the research generally antedates the distribution of drugs. Obvious ethical issues arise with regard to the ultimate long-term benefit to the participants of such research protocols as well as to the availability of drugs to the people of the host nations after the research project has been completed.