Inter Press Service - December 13, 2004
Boris Edson Yameogo

According to the most recent statistics from the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), HIV prevalence in Burkina Faso in 2003 was 4.2 percent û down from 7.17 percent in 1997.

However, Mamadou Sawadogo, chairman of the Network for Greater Involvement of People Living with HIV in the Fight Against AIDS, claims this improvement has not been reflected in increased availability of anti-retrovirals (ARVs). These drugs are used to prevent HIV-positive persons from succumbing to AIDS-related illnesses.

"Despite the many initiatives launched in Burkina Faso and the enormous resources allocated to the fight against AIDS, barely 1,000 people are receiving adequate treatment," says Sawadogo, who has lived with HIV for a decade.

"Resources made available for AIDS victims are not used in a timely fashion and this delay has proved harmful to those people," he adds.

As an example of this, Sawadogo points to money promised to Burkina Faso by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. An agreement concerning this money was signed in October last year.

"The intention was that for the first two years (of the period covered by the agreement)...four billion CFA francs (about eight million dollars) were supposed to be released to finance programmes to help those who are ill as a result of AIDS," says Sawadogo.

"Unfortunately...we had to wait until 2004 for them to tell us that a software problem had prevented them from releasing the money," he added. The Global Fund was created in 2001 in acknowledgement of the fact that much more money was needed for the treatment of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria than had been made available.

Mamadou Lamine Sakho, UNAIDS' representative in Burkina Faso, admits that problems exist in releasing money to certain developing countries, and that the Global Fund is attempting to correct this situation.

For his part, Health Minister Alain Yoda presents a brighter picture of ARV distribution in the country, saying that nearly 2,600 patients were receiving therapy by the end of September this year. This represented an increase of 400 people over the 2,200 registered in December 2003.

Yoda acknowledges that still more people require ARVs, but believes the World Health Organisation's (WHO) '3 by 5' initiative will go some way towards addressing this need. (The WHO programme aims to get ARVs to three million people who are living with AIDS in developing and middle income countries, by the end of 2005.)

Lazare Banse, director of the government agency that controls the sale of ARVs, says the drugs are also becoming available at "ever decreasing prices", thanks to donors.

According to official statistics, some 300,000 people are infected with HIV/AIDS in Burkina Faso.

The high cost of anti-AIDS drugs puts them beyond the reach of many in the country, where about 46.2 percent of the 12 million inhabitants live below the poverty line of a dollar a day û this according to a survey conducted last year. An unsubsidized course of ARVs costs about 20 dollars a month.

Government says that it, too, is unable to meet the costs of ARV provision: according to Yoda, authorities can only provide full treatment for 200 patients at present. As a result, AIDS sufferers are asked to contribute between 10 and 16 dollars a month for their treatment, although government tries to reduce this fee whenever possible.

Sawadogo claims that subsidized care, even where it is available, only covers a three-year period.

Certain activists have called for particular attention to be given to providing girls and women with ARVs, given that they are especially vulnerable to contracting HIV.

"Giving women and girls access to ARVs is our main aim at present," says Martine Somda, president of the REV+ association. Somda, who has also been infected with HIV for about ten years, was decorated by government on World AIDS Day this year for her efforts to fight the pandemic.

She has called on donors to "revise their funding strategies in favour of women, to give them every means of protecting themselves (against AIDS) û and in so doing, protect the nation."

Burkina Faso's National Council for the Fight Against AIDS has also highlighted the fact that biological and cultural factors put women at greater risk of AIDS û and it claims to be doing something in this regard.

"The launch of the female condom last December formed part of the strategy to protect women and girls (against HIV)," says Andre Tiendrebeogo, permanent secretary of the council.

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