News / Local
Severe shortage of ARVs, patients forced to share
10 Jul 2012 at 06:38hrs | Views
BULAWAYO has been hit by a severe shortage of anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs amid reports that 1 090 children are dying in the country every week from HIV and Aids.
It has also emerged that 15 000 children are infected with the disease every year.
The shortage of drugs has seen HIV patients on Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) being forced to share the medication.
The patients are allocated available stocks in a bid to satisfy the demand with those on the same stage of medication splitting the available allocation among them equally. Bulawayo City Council director of health services Dr Zanele Hwalima could not readily shed more light on the matter, but confirmed that the patients were sharing ARVs.
"Patients have to share ARVs if the stocks are inadequate while awaiting next allocation from the Government," said Dr Hwalima.
According the latest council report, Dr Hwalima also noted that the drugs were being supplied by the Government and in the event there were shortages, patients were forced to share available ARVs while they wait for the next allocation.
The local authority's health, housing and education committee chaired by Ward 29 councillor Monica Lubimbi also noted the shortage of the life prolonging drugs with concern.
According to ARV and opportunistic infections clinic activities for May, 22 777 patients are receiving ARVs in 12 city council clinics dotted around Bulawayo and 1 414 cumulative deaths have been recorded since 2004.
Due to drug shortages, provision of ARVs to 1,3 million people living with HIV and Aids in Zimbabwe could be crippled.
Declining donor funding for HIV and Aids had worsened the situation.
As for children, the National Co-ordinator for Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) and Paediatric HIV Care in the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Dr Angela Mushavi, said 1 090 children were dying from HIV and Aids every week.
She attributed the majority of the deaths to the mother-to-child transmission of the HIV virus during pregnancy, breast feeding or on delivery.
"In Zimbabwe, 1 090 children are dying of HIV and Aids related diseases with new paediatric infections estimated at 90 percent. You will realise that out of those children dying of the disease, 90 percent of the cases are coming from mother to child HIV transmission," she said.
Dr Mushavi said there was a need for pregnant women infected with the HIV virus to book early for antenatal care to avoid transmitting the disease to their unborn babies.
"As Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, we continue to encourage pregnant women to book early for antenatal care so that we are able to check them."
HIV can be passed on from mother to the baby during pregnancy, delivery or while breastfeeding hence the call on the infected to book within the first three months of pregnancy so that they are given drugs under the PMTCT programme to limit the transmission of the virus to the baby.
"Pregnant women with a low CD4 count have a high viral load and hence they should be put on antiretroviral treatment so that they are less likely to transmit the HIV virus to their children," she said.
Dr Mushavi noted that over the last 10 years, HIV prevalence among pregnant women had declined. According to the Zimbabwe Demographic Health Survey of 2010-2011, 90 percent of pregnant women booked for antenatal care.
According to the HIV estimates of 2009, out of a total of 412 122 expected pregnancies in 2011 in Zimbabwe, 45 623 pregnancies were to HIV-infected women.
Dr Mushavi said 21 percent of the under-fives mortality rate in the country had been attributed to HIV and Aids as one of the major underlying causes.
Out of the 1,1 million people living with HIV and Aids in Zimbabwe, 151 749 are children.
According to the World Heath Organisation (WHO) survey of 2010, there are 3,4 million people living with HIV and Aids in the world with sub-Saharan Africa having the majority number of 3,1 million people infected with the disease.
In sub-Saharan Africa, at least 20 children are getting infected with HIV and Aids every three hours while in the developed world 100 children are infected annually.
Dr Mushavi said there was a need for concerted efforts in the fight against HIV and Aids among children through eliminating the mother-to-child HIV transmission.
"We want to ensure that we have an HIV and Aids-free generation in our country by eliminating the mother-to-child HIV transmission. We are saying if all key stakeholders join hands and work together, we can be able to reach the United Nations (UN) Global Plan target of reducing the trend by 90 percent in 2015," she said.
Zimbabwe is among the 22 high HIV and Aids burdened countries in the world targeted by the UN Global Plan, which is the world body's strategic framework for prevention of HIV infection in infants and young children.
Zimbabwe has since adopted the strategy and the Minister of Health and Child Welfare, Dr Henry Madzorera officially launched the national elimination campaign under the PMTCT programme in January last year.
There are 1 560 PMTCT health facilities in the country.
"As Government working conjunction with partners and other stakeholders, we need to scale up efforts towards the elimination of new paediatric HIV infections in the country.
"We have noted that inadequate community mobilisation is another cause of an increase in mother-to-child HIV transmission hence the need to raise awareness through distribution of pamphlets written in both English and vernacular languages as well as engaging the media," said Dr Mushavi.
She expressed concern over the lack of resources and inadequate trained health workers to operate machines at the PMTCT health facilities.
Dr Mushavi also said some PMTCT health facilities were situated far from the people.
According to the National Health Strategy, a health facility should be situated within a radius of 10km.
The country is sitting on a $39 million budget deficit for the procurement of anti-retroviral drugs for 2012.
Figures by National Aids Council (Nac) show that at the moment 503 678 people are in need of anti-retroviral therapy (ART) with another 89 490 more below 15 years.
It has also emerged that 15 000 children are infected with the disease every year.
The shortage of drugs has seen HIV patients on Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) being forced to share the medication.
The patients are allocated available stocks in a bid to satisfy the demand with those on the same stage of medication splitting the available allocation among them equally. Bulawayo City Council director of health services Dr Zanele Hwalima could not readily shed more light on the matter, but confirmed that the patients were sharing ARVs.
"Patients have to share ARVs if the stocks are inadequate while awaiting next allocation from the Government," said Dr Hwalima.
According the latest council report, Dr Hwalima also noted that the drugs were being supplied by the Government and in the event there were shortages, patients were forced to share available ARVs while they wait for the next allocation.
The local authority's health, housing and education committee chaired by Ward 29 councillor Monica Lubimbi also noted the shortage of the life prolonging drugs with concern.
According to ARV and opportunistic infections clinic activities for May, 22 777 patients are receiving ARVs in 12 city council clinics dotted around Bulawayo and 1 414 cumulative deaths have been recorded since 2004.
Due to drug shortages, provision of ARVs to 1,3 million people living with HIV and Aids in Zimbabwe could be crippled.
Declining donor funding for HIV and Aids had worsened the situation.
As for children, the National Co-ordinator for Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) and Paediatric HIV Care in the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Dr Angela Mushavi, said 1 090 children were dying from HIV and Aids every week.
She attributed the majority of the deaths to the mother-to-child transmission of the HIV virus during pregnancy, breast feeding or on delivery.
"In Zimbabwe, 1 090 children are dying of HIV and Aids related diseases with new paediatric infections estimated at 90 percent. You will realise that out of those children dying of the disease, 90 percent of the cases are coming from mother to child HIV transmission," she said.
Dr Mushavi said there was a need for pregnant women infected with the HIV virus to book early for antenatal care to avoid transmitting the disease to their unborn babies.
"As Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, we continue to encourage pregnant women to book early for antenatal care so that we are able to check them."
HIV can be passed on from mother to the baby during pregnancy, delivery or while breastfeeding hence the call on the infected to book within the first three months of pregnancy so that they are given drugs under the PMTCT programme to limit the transmission of the virus to the baby.
"Pregnant women with a low CD4 count have a high viral load and hence they should be put on antiretroviral treatment so that they are less likely to transmit the HIV virus to their children," she said.
Dr Mushavi noted that over the last 10 years, HIV prevalence among pregnant women had declined. According to the Zimbabwe Demographic Health Survey of 2010-2011, 90 percent of pregnant women booked for antenatal care.
According to the HIV estimates of 2009, out of a total of 412 122 expected pregnancies in 2011 in Zimbabwe, 45 623 pregnancies were to HIV-infected women.
Dr Mushavi said 21 percent of the under-fives mortality rate in the country had been attributed to HIV and Aids as one of the major underlying causes.
Out of the 1,1 million people living with HIV and Aids in Zimbabwe, 151 749 are children.
According to the World Heath Organisation (WHO) survey of 2010, there are 3,4 million people living with HIV and Aids in the world with sub-Saharan Africa having the majority number of 3,1 million people infected with the disease.
In sub-Saharan Africa, at least 20 children are getting infected with HIV and Aids every three hours while in the developed world 100 children are infected annually.
Dr Mushavi said there was a need for concerted efforts in the fight against HIV and Aids among children through eliminating the mother-to-child HIV transmission.
"We want to ensure that we have an HIV and Aids-free generation in our country by eliminating the mother-to-child HIV transmission. We are saying if all key stakeholders join hands and work together, we can be able to reach the United Nations (UN) Global Plan target of reducing the trend by 90 percent in 2015," she said.
Zimbabwe is among the 22 high HIV and Aids burdened countries in the world targeted by the UN Global Plan, which is the world body's strategic framework for prevention of HIV infection in infants and young children.
Zimbabwe has since adopted the strategy and the Minister of Health and Child Welfare, Dr Henry Madzorera officially launched the national elimination campaign under the PMTCT programme in January last year.
There are 1 560 PMTCT health facilities in the country.
"As Government working conjunction with partners and other stakeholders, we need to scale up efforts towards the elimination of new paediatric HIV infections in the country.
"We have noted that inadequate community mobilisation is another cause of an increase in mother-to-child HIV transmission hence the need to raise awareness through distribution of pamphlets written in both English and vernacular languages as well as engaging the media," said Dr Mushavi.
She expressed concern over the lack of resources and inadequate trained health workers to operate machines at the PMTCT health facilities.
Dr Mushavi also said some PMTCT health facilities were situated far from the people.
According to the National Health Strategy, a health facility should be situated within a radius of 10km.
The country is sitting on a $39 million budget deficit for the procurement of anti-retroviral drugs for 2012.
Figures by National Aids Council (Nac) show that at the moment 503 678 people are in need of anti-retroviral therapy (ART) with another 89 490 more below 15 years.
Source - chronicle
