Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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New Vision (Kampala) - September 17, 2003
This is in partnership with AIDS Healthcare Foundation and AHF Global Immunity, the largest AIDS organization in the United States of America.
In announcing the new ARV treatment plan -- one of the most ambitious on the African continent to date -- Mukula, Minister, described AHF Global Immunity's HIV existing medical treatment program in Uganda's Masaka District, which has been providing medical care and free ARV treatment to Ugandans for over one year, as a "proven initiative," that not only can expand quickly in the district, but can also assist other district hospitals launch anti-retroviral treatment programs. The Masaka program -- a collaboration among AHF Global Immunity, Kitovu Mobile, The AIDS Service Organization (TASO) and the Ugandan Ministry called 'Uganda Cares' -- provides free medical care and ARV treatment in a rural area of the country.
"This new commitment from the Ugandan government means an almost immediate and far-reaching scale up of HIV/AIDS patients on life-saving ARV treatment in Uganda, and we thank both the Minister and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni for their vision and leadership in this effort," said Michael Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation. "Over the past year and a half, AHF Global Immunity's Uganda Cares clinic has been privileged to bring ARV treatment to a limited number of Ugandans living with HIV/AIDS in an effort to develop a model of treatment that we and others may now bring to other communities throughout Uganda."
The announcement of the Uganda/AHF commitment to increasing treatment access to as many as 10,000 patients came at the conclusion of a Washington, DC conference on scaling up treatment in the developing world that was hosted by AIDS Healthcare Foundation and a number of other community partners and international stakeholders.
The Uganda Cares Healthcare Center first opened in December 2001 with a ribbon-cutting ceremony presided over by Mama Janet Museveni, the First Lady of Uganda. The Uganda Cares Healthcare Center began providing ARV treatment on February 15, 2002; as of July, the center had close to 120 patients on anti-retroviral treatment, including 28 children. However, there are currently thousands more awaiting such life-saving treatment in the Masaka region and as many as 1 million Ugandans living with HIV/AIDS in need of treatment.
In July of this year, AHF Global Immunity and Gilead Sciences, Inc., the Foster City, California-based manufacturer of several key AIDS drugs, announced a similar partnership in the fight against AIDS: Gilead announced it would support a scale up of Ugandan patients being treated with ARVs and also provide its AIDS drugs tenofovir (Viread(R)) and FTC (Emtriva(TM)) free to patients at AHF Global Immunity's free AIDS treatment clinic in Masaka. That partnership is enabling Uganda Cares to expand from roughly 100 patients to 1,000 patients; yesterday's announcement by Uganda's Captain Mukula increases the number to as many as 10,000 Ugandans who may now access life-saving ARV treatment.
"We are both honored and privileged to have Captain Mukula and the Ugandan Government's commitment to partner with us as we try and bring more people in the developing world into the lifeboat of AIDS treatment via the scale up of delivery of anti-retroviral therapy in Uganda," said Henry Chang, AHF Global Immunity's Executive Director.
The Uganda Cares Healthcare Center is in the Masaka District of Uganda, approximately 120km southwest from Kampala. Of the first 100 men, women and children receiving anti-retroviral treatment at the Masaka Healthcare Center during its first year, over 80% have shown substantial improvement in their health and are returning to their normal lives. Adherence rate to medications is a remarkable 97%. Dr. Bernard Okongo, the facility's medical director, credits the adherence rate to the high level of motivation of his patients, and to the counseling and treatment education services provided by Uganda Care's local African NGO partners, including The AIDS Service Organization (TASO), Kitovu Mobile, Masaka Regional Hospital's Voluntary Counseling and Testing Unit, and the AIDS Information Center.
Uganda Ministry of Health has a history of providing leadership through a pro-active approach to addressing HIV/AIDS pandemic through national and regional HIV programmes throughout Uganda. The ministry supports the work of NGOs & the collaborative effort to improve health and delivery systems across Uganda.
AHF Global Immunity AHF Global Immunity is a non-profit, international initiative of AIDS Healthcare Foundation dedicated to sharing AHF's healthcare expertise with resource-constrained areas of the globe.
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