The Committee based its postition paper on the following fact:

existence of an effective way of inducing long term suppression of viral replication which in turn is associated with delayed progression of HIV disease. In order to reach this aim, the treatment requires to be: given in combination of drugs (ideally 3), highly compliant, not interrupted, iniciated early, prolonged and carried out by specialists. This treatment is indicated in all symptomatic patients and those with early immunologic deterioration and/or high viral load. Recent infection and acute primary retroviral infection should also be considered for treatment. General criteria for treatment of children (including newborn) are given. The treatment sponsored and financed by the Ministry of Health for beneficiaries of the public health system at this time in insufficient since only a minority of elegible patients receive it due to budgetary reasons and, because only 2 drugs are given, is considered by most experts as suboptimal. The Committee considers that the responsability for financing, providing and delivering of these treatments (in proper combination and dosages) exceeds the duty of the State and Ministry of Health and should include all the parties involved and that the society as a whole should respond generously and solidariously. However, the State and its official institutions have a special responsibility with the poorer segments of the populations in orden to provide them with medically proven treatments and besides that cannot resign the other responsability of promoting, supervising and controlling the mechanisms ensuring proper access to adecuate treatment of non public health system beneficiaries. The Committee also considers that the efforts to prevent new infections in the populations should not be abandoned but intensified and that people under treatment, however succesful, should not consider themselves as noninfectious