Tanzania: Plan Launched to Dispense HIV Drugs in Centres
Minister for Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, Ms Ummy Mwalimu
A NEW programme has
been launched to improve the public access to HIV/AIDS and
opportunistic diseases subsidised drugs in various Voluntary Counselling
and Testing (VCT) Centres.
The plan was
unveiled by the Minister for Health, Community Development, Gender,
Elderly and Children, Ms Ummy Mwalimu, saying that the government wants
to end the problem by allowing VCTs and selected Health Centres to
release the drugs every three month.
The drugs which are
currently unavailable in the institutions, pose a challenge to the
patients who require the prerequisite medications, after becoming
susceptible to opportunistic infections in their struggle to access the
subsidised drugs in the government institutions.
"There is no need
to command and disturb patients to pick the drugs everyday at the
hospitals or centre. This plan must be reviewed," she pointed, while
announcing that the new plan should start this July. "We have the
records of the patients.
I don't see why
they should not be given the required medicines on time to cover for at
least three months," she said. At least 1.4 million people are HIV
positive in Tanzania, with Lindi and Zanzibar recording the lowest
infection rates with at less than one per cent each.
A study published
by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in 2017 shows that HIV
prevalence among adults was high in Njombe (11.4 per cent), Iringa (11.3
per cent) and Mbeya Regions (9.3 per cent). The Minister said during
the 2018/19 financial year, the state has allocated 5.3bn/- to procure
drugs for HIV and AIDS patients including treating their opportunistic
infections.
Ms Mwalimu said at
the 30th anniversary of the National Aid Control Programme (NACP), the
drugs for people living with HIV and AIDs will be the ministry's top
priority. National Council of People Living with HIV and AIDS in
Tanzania (NACOPHA) explained that its patients were struggling to obtain
the drugs in some centres, though they are few.
"We face a lot of
discriminations and we are required to get these drugs to sustain our
health," said Nacopha Chairman, Mr Justine Mwinuka in a statement.
Citing a centre in Njombe for instance, he said it receives 150 patients
on daily basis, forcing it to meet some challenges to dispense the
drugs to the individuals promptly.
Records show that
there at least 2,800 VCTs across the country and in addition, there are
3,400 centres countrywide providing Prevention from Mother To-Child
Transmission (PMTCT) but fail to offer Voluntary Counselling and Testing
(CVT) services.
The Minister said
by December this year, 50 per cent of PMTCT or 1,700 would be offering
the VCTs. Meanwhile, the government is considering ranking all its 7000
Health Centres countywide to provide VCT service to HIV and AIDs
patients in attempt to eliminate the disease.
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