Life-saving Aids drugs do not work as well for patients who have previously taken them but not in the right doses, as often happens when patients cannot afford the full treatment, Medecins Sans Frontieres said on Tuesday. The relief organisation said its research at an HIV/Aids clinic it runs in Lagos showed that free treatment it gives there worked twice as well on people taking the drugs for the first time, compared with those who had imperfect treatment before.

It said the results showed that Nigeria and other African countries needed to provide comprehensive care free of charge so patients avoid getting into a cycle of incomplete treatment that allows the HIV virus to build up a resistance to drugs. Francois Giddey, head of mission in Nigeria for the Dutch section of MSF, said the survey found that 44 percent people who interrupted their treatment did so because they could not afford the anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs). ?There is a direct correlation between the failure of the drugs and the burden of paying for treatment,? Giddey said.

The group presented its research at an international HIV/Aids conference going on this week in the Nigerian capital Abuja. Nigeria has 3.5 million people with HIV/Aids? the third-highest number in the world after South Africa and India ? and provides ARVs to about 40,000 people, with a goal of raising that to 250,000 people. But MSF said even those who get the drugs free from the government have to pay for treatment of opportunistic infections as well as for crucial medical tests that have to be done monthly. Many cannot afford to do that over the long term.

To pay for their care, 39 percent of respondents in the MSF survey reported borrowing or begging, while 18 percent said they had been forced to sell property. ?That is why we are saying that comprehensive treatment, not just the drugs, should be free for all those who need it,? Giddey said on the sidelines of the conference. He said while the ARVs cost the government 1,000 naira ($ 7.8) per patient per month, the cost of the tests and other drugs that people have to pay for was between 3,000 naira and 8,000 naira a month.