"Faced with the terror of Anthrax, US response to this danger to its population is so telling for those of us fighting against HIV/AIDS in Africa. The very same Senate that threatened African nations with sanctions if they dared disregard patent laws on HIV/AIDS drugs, has announced that it will disregard the Bayer AG patent on the Anthrax drug Cipro.

Canada on its part, has not minced words, it has gone straight and reproduced Cipro. Patent laws be damned. The Canadian response is what I would consider a human response to a human in danger one does what is needed. Human life of is worth more than any patent can ever be worth.

There are at least 8,000 deaths from HIV/AIDS every day in Africa. In Kenya where I am from, there are 600 deaths from HIV/AIDS everyday. As the death toll from HIV/AIDS continued in the nineties, and new life saving drugs came to the market, it was only natural for Africa to look for relief. African nations started asking the pharmaceutical companies for cheaper prices for these drugs. Their call or should we say their plea for reduced prices was met with outright hostility. You could almost hear the voices in boardrooms. "How dare these Africans think they deserve cheap drugs?"

It was then that some African nations decided to take the bull by the horns. If there was going to be no help from the pharmaceuticals, these nations were going to ignore the patent laws and reproduce these lifesaving drugs for their own people. What they could not have expected was the US corporate and government response. In 1999 the US Senate threatened sanctions against South Africa and others who dared to violate patents of American pharmaceutical companies. By that threat, Africa was denied a chance to save its men, women and children dying of HIV/AIDS. While America failed us, African leaders failed us even more by being cowered by intimidation.

Anthrax is potentially very dangerous, but its danger is nothing compared with the daily deaths from HIV/AIDS is in Africa. With Anthrax, there have only been four deaths. Compare that to 8,000 women, men and children dying of HIV/AIDS each and every day in Africa. It is therefore not surprising are wondering why it is okay to disregard the patent laws in the face of 4 deaths from Anthrax and not in the face of 8,000 deaths from HIV/AIDS each and everyday.

Why are our lives not worth the commitment to disregard patent laws in the face of the worst plague in human history?

It is a question that Africa must ask. We deserve to know what an African life is worth in the human market. Maybe if we knew that African human life was not that much, we would not expect much from fellow humans."

Back to main "Analysis and reflections" page