Some civil society actors in Uganda have warned that the limited supply of HIV/AIDS medication in the country could spell danger for patients.
The East African country, Development Diaries understands, is facing limited supply of HIV/AIDS life-saving medication, particularly for third-line patients.
It is understood that the stockouts and shortages of HIV drugs have increased the risk of antiretroviral resistance, treatment failure, sickness and death of people living with HIV/AIDS in the country.
There are 1.5 million people living with HIV/AIDS in Uganda, according to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).
Moses Nsubuga, who has lived with HIV/AIDS more than three decades, said people with HIV/AIDS need to take their medication every day to control the viral load and mitigate the chances of infecting their sexual partners.
‘We contacted the Global Fund about the HIV/AIDS refill gap. However, they said the money was released a long time ago. What happened to the money, who is supposed to procure these drugs and didn’t do so? People are beginning to die. You can’t be off treatment for three months and you survive’, The Observer quoted him as saying.
Uganda Coalition for Access to Essential Medicines recently petitioned the Ministry of Health over the persistent stockouts of Antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) in the country.
‘We stormed the Ministry of Health and HIV/AIDS control programme to get adequate answers over the stock-out of HIV medicine, particularly for third Line patients’, the Executive Director of Uganda Young Positives, Kurish Mubiru, as said.
‘They told us that the programmes manager of the HIV/AIDS control programme is on leave and the head of treatment who gave us information about two weeks ago travelled to Montreal, Canada, for AIDS 2022 conference’.
According to a human rights activist, Salome Atim, uninterrupted and adequate supplies of life-saving antiretroviral treatment are essential to achieving Uganda’s goal of defeating HIV/AIDS.
‘All babies, children and adults living with HIV/AIDS need to access antiretroviral treatment that suppresses their viral load and keeps them healthy. But universal access to treatment is becoming a mirage for people living with HIV/AIDS’, the aforementioned Ugandan daily quoted Atim as saying.
However, in his reaction to this development, Spokesperson for the Uganda Ministry of Health, Emmanuel Ainebyona, said there were adequate HIV/AIDS drugs in government health facilities.
According to him, he consulted the National Medical Stores (NMS) and ‘they said that all HIV/AIDS drugs are available’.
Photo source: HopeMedia Stock Photography
