By Edward Makuzva
The country has been hit by a shortage of anti-retroviral drugs in public health institutions, raising fears of drug interruptions among people taking the life-saving drugs should the situation persist.
Information gathered by Identities Media Holdings (IMH) showed that HIV-positive people who are taking abacavir — a second line ARV drug — are being given a weeks’ supply of the drug instead of the traditional three months because of the dwindled stocks.
Speaking to Harare provincial Advocacy and chairperson, from the Zimbabwe National Network of People living with HIV (ZNNPt), Charles Kautare said people who would be affected are those on second line treatment and once they became resistant to second line treatment, it would mean they will have to be commenced on third line treatment, which is more expensive to manage.
Kautare was speaking at Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt Development (ZIMCODD) stand whose aim was to raise awareness on Economic Consciousness for development and engaging citizens in Public Finance Management.
Kataure called on Government to sort out the issue as a matter of urgency before multi-drug resistant HIV starts developing.
“Zimbabwe is facing serious shortages of life-saving HIV drugs following the devaluation of the local currency, which wiped away funds collected by the National Aids Council through the Aids levy”, Kautare explained.
Recently, the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned of drug resistant HIV as an emerging threat in some developing countries, Zimbabwe is included.
This year in January, NAC communications director, Madeline Dube told journalists that Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s decision to ditch the 1:1 exchange rate between the bond notes and United States dollar had seen the funds for anti-retroviral drugs for the year being reduced fivefold.
“At the beginning of the year we had about $23 million in our account and that money was equivalent to US$23 million since the rate was at 1:1,” Dube explained.
“But now with the devaluing of the bond notes currency and as it stands, that money is now about RTGS$5 million if you calculate using the inter-bank market rate.
That is a serious crisis and the money is too little to purchase ARVs adequate to meet demand.
Statistics released by NAC shows that 1,3 million are living with HIV in the country are in need of ARVs.
Of these, 1,249 million are aged above 15 years while 76 700 are children aged 14 and below.
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