ISLAMABAD, Nov 16: The European Commission has cleared a plan which would boost access of developing countries, including Pakistan, to key medicines for prevention, diagnosis and treatment of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

An informed source told Dawn that under the plan adopted on October 30, 2002, drugs manufacturers would be able to significantly increase supplies of medicines at lower prices, while keeping higher rates for the same items in the European Union (EU).

Official estimates suggested that approximately 250,000 new patients were added every year making Pakistan the sixth highest TB burdened country in the world.

The study also showed that TB was responsible for 26 per cent of all avoidable deaths globally. The disease took an annual economic toll equivalent to $12 billion from the incomes of poor communities. On an average a TB patient and his family lost 20 to 30 per cent of their annual household incomes.

TB still kills 13,000 and affects 630,000 people in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) every year. This means that every minute one person from the region develops TB and every five minutes someone dies.

The Pakistani government has allocated Rs25 million for the year 2002-03 under the national TB control programme. Though in Pakistan the menace of HIV/AIDS has not reached an alarming situation, there are still over 1,787 AIDS-reported cases out of which 207 patients have fully developed disease while over 1,500 are HIV positive.

The European Union (EU), the source said, would approve the plan before the end of 2002. Under the EU plan, both patent and generic products would be registered for onward supply to countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Angola, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal etc.

There are 72 countries where these drugs will be provided out of which 49 are least developed countries and 23 are low income countries, which heavily depend on imports of essential medicines to fight three main communicable diseases, HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria.