TOUGH TIMES AHEAD? As USAID Stops Buying ARVs for Uganda, ‘Free’ AIDS Drugs are Reportedly Being Sold to Patients

Reports of health workers at public facilities selling antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) have emerged in the wake of freezing of aid to Uganda’s health sector.

Donald Trump’s administration has dismantled foreign aid entity USAID, freezing funding lines that have supported vital health interventions.

The news of the freeze of funding meant for ARVs caused panic among HIV/AIDs patients and organizations supporting them.

Reports first emerged that Bushenyi’s Ishaka Adventist Hospital was selling ARVs to patients.

More people reported being sold ARVs. “… we bought ARVS for my uncle at 70000 a tablet [because] he was taken to the hospital [in] a very bad condition and they said there are no ARVS in the hospital. But after picking money they became  available,” reported a one Flavia Asio.

UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima put the Ministry of Health to

“We are not going to allow rich people to bribe health workers and buy up FREE HIV medicines (ARVs) to stock up for themselves, cause unnecessary shortages and leave poor and vulnerable  people to die. NO!” wrote Byanyima.

“I call upon our Hon Health Minister Dr Jane Ruth Aceng and our able Permanent Secretary Dr Diana Atwine  to step in immediately and resolve this. Every life matters.”

Byanyima added: “We must STOP this. HIV medicines in Uganda are a gift from US  government and taxpayers, to be given FREE OF CHARGE to people living with HIV.

Health workers must NOT sell them and rich people must not hoard them. Everyone must get what they need.  PEPFAR and UNAIDS are working hard to ensure that lifesaving treatment continues un-interrupted.”

But the Ministry of Health, relying on a public relations statement from Ishaka Adventist Hospital, dismissed the allegations, tasking Byanyima to present evidence.

“The Ministry of Health would like to categorically state that Antiretroviral Viral Drugs (ARVs) are available and are free of charge in all public and Private Not For Profit Health Facilities,” the ministry wrote on March 20.

FILLING THE GAP

According to Byanyima, for over two decades, the US Government has been the biggest champion of the global HIV response. The current disruptions in US funding for PEPFAR and other programs, she further noted, are having a devastating impact.

Byanyima added that if PEPFAR is not fully reinstated and other resources for the HIV response not identified, UNAIDS estimates that over the next four years there could be 6.3 million additional AIDS-related deaths and 8.7 million new HIV infections.

In Uganda, PEPFAR provides Shs340bn for health system strengthening alone, which includes salaries for 4,333 clinical workers across 2,000 health facilities and 26,690 community health workers who link patients to care.

Uganda spends Shs 1.928 trillion each year on HIV services, with 60 per centof this amount (Shs 1 trillion) allocated to treatment and laboratory monitoring. Of this total, Uganda contributes only Shs230bn, while the remainder is funded by donors, primarily the U.S. government and the Global Fund.

On March o8, junior finance minister Henry Musasizi assured Ugandans that the Ugandan government would not look on and watch citizens die after the Trump administration suspended up to Shs600bn in funding for the health sector.

“We have combined together with the Ministry of Health. The figure comes to about Shs600Bn in the critical areas especially medicine and other essential items which we have been funding, we shall provide the funding for this internally under Government of Uganda,” noted Musasizi.

“We will not allow our people to die because USA has gone away. We are in discussions with the Ministry of Health and by the time we finalise the budget, there will definitely be provision to cater for what you say has been financed.”

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