HELP HIV PATIENTS

THERE have been reports that some countries have warned that they are at risk of ARVs stock-outs because of the Covid-19 pandemic according to a WHO survey.

Zimbabwe can easily be one of the affected countries if there is no forward planning.

The country has done well to accommodate people living with HIV during the Covid-19 lockdown era.

But more importantly, the relevant stakeholders must be applauded for keeping a steady supply of ARVs and other related medicines available.

Any shortage of critical anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs), central to the HIV/Aids treatment programme in the country, would be a major cause for concern.

Such shortages could force AIDS patients to switch to drug combinations which compromise their health and can lead to disaster as mixing different regimens can eventually make the virus drug resistant.

This (shortage of anti-retrovirals) has happened to other African countries like Uganda, Kenya and South Africa before and the results have – almost always – been regrettable.

In Kenya, amid repeated government reassurances (which usually happens when reports of shortages occur), there was a shortage of ARVs in 2018 leading to protests that were aimed against the government with claims that less than 400 000 of the 1,4 million people infected with HIV/ Aids had access to the drugs.

The protesters’ most logical complaint – which applies to Africa as a whole and Zimbabwe in particular – was that over 20 years since the first HIV cases were reported in the country, donors still fund 85 per cent of all treatment.

Although the percentage of dependence may be less in Zimbabwe, this reliance on donors leaves the country, and Africa in general, at the mercy of the countries in control of these donor organizations. As a country we should have found a back up plan in the event that funding for ARVs dwindles or is withdrawn altogether.

We should also have a plan against eventualities like Covid-19 as shortages are deadly to us.

In Zimbabwe for example this would equate to tragedy for the 400 000 people who are offered ARVs by the government for treatment of Aids and HIV.

The disbursement of money for ARVs from the Global Fund is something beyond Zimbabwe’s control and – in the event that the process is delayed or flawed – the responsible stakeholders should have a fall back plan.

According to the World Health Organisation, drug interruption is among the chief causes of treatment failure among Aids patients and all caution must be taken to avoid this.

Good programme management – especially as far as the disbursement of the drugs to the patients – is key to managing the HIV/Aids scourge.

When South Africa experienced a shortage of ARVs in May 2019, with reports that drugs meant for infants and children infected with HIV were being prescribed to adults because of the shortfall, HIV activists and health workers immediately demanded an inquiry into the shortages, something which should also happen in Zimbabwe.

Health centres around the country should not wait until their ARV supplies are nearly out-of-stock before reporting to government.