Access to AIDS treatment in developing countries: a global issue of equity and human rights.

People are highly optimistic about the possibility of recent developments in combination antiretroviral therapy for HIV/AIDS to effectively treat people with HIV/AIDS, thereby prolonging their survival and improving the quality of life. Access to advanced retroviral therapy for HIV/AIDS in developing countries, however, is rarely discussed as feasible. Many people even believe that access for all to optimum AIDS care is an utopian ideal not worth pursuing. Imaginative, radical steps together with political will could, however, help to broaden access to advanced therapy for people with HIV/AIDS. A global AIDS-related biomedical technology transfer initiative is needed. Such an initiative should foster a partnership between governments, industry, and international organizations based upon a maximalist perspective of the ethics of access to treatment, global equity considerations, and a global perspective upon individual and community rights. Challenges, a global AIDS trade protocol, and political will are discussed.