Panafrican News Agency - November 30, 2001
According to figures at the ministry of Health and Prevention, the country recorded 5 000 AIDS-related deaths in 2000, bringing the number of deaths since the first case was officially reported in 1986, to 30,000.
Specialists explain the low prevalence in Senegal on the fact that the State had very early embarked on the fight against the pandemic and set up a national committee to coordinate all national programmes.
Besides, national awareness campaigns are regularly organised in the country, with the last held from 26 August to 15 November.
President Abdoulaye Wade, speaking to donors on 23 November in Dakar at a preparatory meeting of the New Partnership for African Development funding conference, described the results as "very encouraging."
To facilitate the patients' access to anti-retrovirals, Senegalese pharmacists decided at an international forum of French-speaking African pharmacists, held in Dakar in June, to give up their profit on anti-HIV/AIDS drugs.
"Today, we are fighting to have anti-retrovirals available in pharmacies to enable patients benefit from price reductions," said the President of the Senegalese pharmacists association, Mamadou Ndiad.
However, the government has not yet authorised the sale of anti-retrovirals in private pharmacies.
Only 450 of the 80,000 patients officially registered in Senegal take anti-retrovirals, because of the exorbitant prices, which range from 300,000 francs CFA (about 405 US dollars) to 400,000 CFA F (about 540 dollars), according to official sources.
Since 1998, the Dakar-Fann University Hospital has been provided with a structure specialised in the treatment of HIV/AIDS.
The mobile treatment centre, built through funds from the Pan- African Organisation for the fight against AIDS, consults on average 25 patients a day and is presently treating 621 cases.
In addition to health care, which is virtually free, patients are assisted by a social assistant and a psychologist.
Meanwhile, activities to commemorate the International AIDS Eradication Day on 1 December will take place in Kaolack, 190 km south-east of Dakar. Organisers chose the town because it is among the hardest hit in Senegal.
According to data issued by the Health and Prevention Ministry, 1,000 people contract the disease in Kaolack every year, while 14,000 others, including 400 children, are HIV-positive. The ministry says 13 percent of prostitutes in the area carry the virus.
The pandemic has already caused the death of 6,600 people, and orphaned 4,300 children in Kaolak.
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