HIV drugs should be priority

Press Review of Saturday, 10 November 2012

Source: Daily Graphic

Reports of shortage of antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) gives cause for concern.

The reports say Persons Living with HIV (PLHIVs) who obtain their supply of ARVs from the hospital have been denied their lifeline for the past five months because the drugs are locked up in the Central Medical Stores inTema.

This, indeed, is an unfortunate situation because, unlike other drugs, ARVs cannot be easily bought from pharmacy shops. Moreover, the consequence of such a drug holiday is drug resistance, which experts say can lead to the emergence of drug-resistant viruses being transferred to people, with dire consequences for the whole country.

Sadly, the unavailability of the drugs is not due to a national shortage but an administrative lapse on the part of KATH administrators.

It is a truism that currently the ARV stock is low. Ghana has had problems with the supply of ARVs, simply because the country relies heavily on the Global Fund for resources for its treatment programme. This means that when money from that source is not available, the treatment programme suffers.

But, currently, Ghana has ARVs that will be sufficient for 56,000 PLHIVs for between three and four months.

The drugs were procured at a cost of $8.9 million by the Ghana AIDS Commission, with funds provided by the Global Fund.

In addition, the government provided GHc5.7 million to support ARVs and the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV.

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HIV drugs should be priority