Anti AIDS consultant calls for policy review on ARV accessibility

Anti AIDS consultant calls for policy review on ARV accessibility
By Florence Bupe
Mon 20 Sep. 2010, 14:00 CAT

AN HIV/ AIDS advocacy and literacy consultant Paul Kasonkomona has appealed to government to review pharmaceutical sector policies to make Anti- Retroviral (ARV) drugs cheaper and more accessible.

Speaking to journalists during an HIV/ AIDS sensitization workshop organized by the Treatment Advocacy and Literacy Campaign (TALC), Kasonkomona said certain ARV regimens were either unavailable or too expensive for most poor infected Zambians to access.

He explained that HIV/ AIDS activists had been pushing for the availability and affordability of the third line ARV treatment but government had remained unresponsive.

Kasonkomona, who is receiving the second line of ARV treatment, charged that limitations in the availability of the third line treatment were partly as a result of corruption in government institutions handling issues of medication.

“Some officials in government and the pharmaceutical industry have a tendency of protecting their own interests, resulting in treatment being expensive. Actions entered into by some of our officials overseas threaten Zambia’s access to medicines,” he said.

Kasonkomona further said imbalances in pharmaceutical trade had the potential to reverse the positive trends attained in making ARVs accessible to many Zambians.

“Trade imbalances, especially in the health sector, will result in the country suffering great losses. For instance, globalised patent rights which permit pharmaceutical companies to exclude lower, generic competitors and thus set profit maximizing monopoly prices will negatively affect the country’s service delivery in the health sector,” he said.

Approximately 150 people in Lusaka alone are in need of third line ARV treatment but only two people are known to be accessing the third line cocktail of drugs at a cost of US $1000 per month, a figure beyond the reach of many affected Zambians.

And TALC country coordinator Felix Mwanza said it was unacceptable for government to fail to avail the third line ARV treatment in the name of reducing expenses when lives were being lost.

He said there was need for government to attach more seriousness to HIV / AIDS related issues, and complained that government had decided to drop the independent HIV Chapter from the sixth national development plan (SNDP).