AEGiS-NV: HIV/Aids Patients Die Early For Lack Of Drugs

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2002. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

HIV/Aids Patients Die Early For Lack Of Drugs

New Vision (Kampala) - September 30, 2002

You cannot recognise her. Regina Nakibuule, 40, is skin and bones hardly six inches above the sponge mattress on the floor. Her half-dead eyes stare from two deep holes. Blood vessels like wires run down her emaciated hands. You can count her ribs and you can see two lean legs like drumsticks sticking out under the cotton blanket.

Many people in Busebwe village, Buwama sub-county in Mawokota county in Mpigi district still remember the attractive Regina who captured the heart of George Ssebyala in 1989. But now Regina, mother of five aged 9-15, has been lying on this mattress for six months in her home, 72 km south of Kampala.

"I have cough and chest pain. Breathing is painful. I have sores in the throat.

I can't eat," Regina whispers. She and her husband tested HIV positive in October 2001. Since mid June 2001, Regina has had headache, fever, joint pains, epigustric pains, diarrhea, vaginal candidias oral sores, and skin itching treated at Mitala Maria Health Centre, 10 km from her home.

The drugs Regina got were supplied by World Vision - an international development non-governmental organisation. Through Buwama Area Development Programme, World Vision and local residents are implementing programmes in health, HIV/AIDS, education, agriculture and micro-enterprise.

"World Vision gives Mitala Maria Health Centre drugs worth between sh1.5m to sh3m every three months," explains Benny Nabbona, the nurse in charge of the Catholic establishment.

"We don't have some of the medicines so we refer the patients to the pharmacies," says Nabbona. They are treating 310 AIDS patients in Buwama, a sub-county with about 37,000 people. Twenty have TB.

"Eighteen AIDS patients died in December 2001 when we ran out of drugs," she regrets.

"Anti-retrovirals can improve Regina's life in one month," says Dr. Daniel Kibuuka Musoke of the International HIV/AIDS Vaccine Initiative who visits Mitala Maria Health Centre every Friday.

The need for drugs to treat opportunistic infections is overwhelming in Buwama and other parts of Uganda. About two million of Uganda's estimated 23 million people have HIV. Only some 10,000 AIDS patients are getting treatment of anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) costing at least sh72,000 per month. ARVs hinder the multiplication of HIV and reduce its presence in the blood thereby improving the health of the patient.

The outcry for treatment for people living with AIDS is worldwide. "If we can get Coca Cola and water to every individual on earth, it should not be impossible to get anti-retrovirals to them to save lives," Joep Lange- Chairman of the International AIDS Society told delegates at the 14th International AIDS Conference in July 2002.

World Vision is seeking ways and partnerships to provide effective treatments to people living with AIDS in Buwama and 13 other sub-counties in Uganda.

"The objectives are to ensure availability of drugs for treatment of opportunistic infections, enhance the capacity of health units to diagnose and treat those diseases," explains Simpson Tumwikirize, a World Vision Uganda Programme Officer.

With treatment Regina and others will be able to live longer, healthier, productive lives.
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