The generic who deserves your trust

A host of new HIV patients who qualify to receive free anti-retroviral therapy are being turned...

A host of new HIV patients who qualify to receive free anti-retroviral therapy are being turned away by most designated health service providers.

The Observer has learnt that the credit crunch has forced local organisations that provide free HIV treatment to cut back on spending – and stop taking on new patients in need of ARVs because donor-funds mainly from Europe and North America, are limited.

“In some of the discussions there is a question of how shall we sustain [the programme] if this continues. People are worried that the lifeline for the provision of these drugs may not be there. How far will this economic crisis go?@, said Dr. David Kihumulo Apuuli, the Director General of the Uganda AIDS Commission.

With most organisations not ready to take on new patients, it has become a fruitless search for treatment for some patients, particularly those who receive free treatment. If they opt to sponsor their treatment, on average a patient would need about Shs 1.7million a year.

In only three years, the people who are able to access ART has shot to 170,600, up from 3,000. But as Dr. Kihumuro Apuuli points out, this achievement faces a big test of sustainability because those in need continue to rise.

The UAC boss said the drugs continue coming in but the challenge is how to maintain the supply of drugs if more people are becoming eligible.

“The numbers are not coming down. There are more worries that prevention seemed to have fallen on the way side as more energy was focused on treatment. There is a lot of need to rejuvenate the prevention activities. We need to stop the number of infections,” he said.

Apuuli’s views were re-echoed by Dr. Luyirika, Mildmay Uganda Country Director, who added that Uganda needs to re-evaluate the HIV/AIDS strategy to find out how many people need the services and how to provide these services. Noting the suggestion by the World Health Organisation to increase the CD4 count threshold to 350, Apuuli noted that Uganda would not afford it.

“With 350 the number will nearly double. We are providing for hardly 50% of those in need,” he said. At the moment, the national threshold stands at 250, the CD4 count at which a person can start anti-retroviral therapy.