Subject: AIDS IN EL SALVADOR
From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1998 23:24:54 -0600 (CST)

3 September , 1998

IN EL SALVADOR PEOPLE WITH AIDS REPORT CAUTIOUS OPTIMISM IN GOVERNMENT
NEGOTIATIONS
                                                                   By
Richard Stern and Guillermo Murillo

People With AIDS in El Salvador have been encouraged by recent meetings held
with representatives of their National Health Care system focused around
receiving anti-retroviral medications.  At the present time, the Salvadoran
government provides AZT to people with AIDS, but no other anti-retroviral
medications. 

Odir Miranda founder and spokesperson for the  Atlacatl group, an NGO
working to obtain AIDS medications said there has also been a recent surge
of interest in the Salvadorean media about access to treatment for PWA's.
Miranda himself, who founded Atlacatl, was severely ill with AIDS and was
hospitalized in June.  But a donor in California  has been sending
anti-retrovirales to Miranda since then and he has improved significantly
enabling him to resume his advocacy work. Miranda is the first person in El
Salvador to publicly  announce that he is living with AIDS.   

Miranda said that Health care authorities have promised a response by
mid-September to the group's demands for the retroviral medications, and he
is cautiously optimistic.  However, he also indicated that if it were
necessary, the group will file an appeal to the Salvadoran Supreme Court.
In Central American only Costa Rica provides these medications to People
Living with AIDS.  There are patient advocacy movements under way in Panama,
Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala.

Miranda own recovery parallels the recovery  of many Costa Rican PWA's who
get the triple therapy combinations, but  unnecessary  AIDS deaths continue
to mount in countries where these medications are not available.  This past
week, Ernesto, one of the founders of the small Nicaraguan patient support
group died at the age of 38.   If the 12th Worlds AIDS conference in Geneva,
had an impact on access to treatment it has yet to be perceived in this region.

For more information about AIDS in Central America, contact us at the
address below.  We also urgently need donations to continue our work on
behalf of  People with AIDS in Central America.

Richard Stern/Guillermo Murillo
Tel/Fax 506-234-2411
e-mail: [email-masked]
              [email-masked]

Odir Miranda can be reached by  telephone at 503-292-6088