Figures of HIV Positive Citizens On ARVs Could Be Inaccurate in Uganda

Doctors currently working in the HIV/AIDS field are saying the current figure (of about 280,000 according to the ministry of Health) of HIV positive people in need of and getting antiretroviral treatment could be inaccurate.

The medics revealed this at a consultative meeting on AIDS programmes' effectiveness and efficiency held at Metropole hotel on October 27-28.

"You find that one individual registers twice at different organisations [that dispense ARVs] under different names and this person is counted twice," the doctors revealed. Using this method, one patient will get ARVs from The AIDS Support Organisation (TASO) and from the Joint Clinical Research Centre (JCRC).

The doctors name fear of drug stock-outs as one of the reasons people hoard ARVs. Patients fear to go without drugs in case of stock-outs; so, they hoard. Stigma against HIV positive individuals is also another reason why some individuals fear to register for their own ARVs such that they make their spouses register twice to get ARVs for them.

"Husbands are the bigger culprits when it comes to making spouses register and get treatment for them," the doctors revealed.

"They do not want to be seen getting this medicine as they are afraid of people's reactions to the discovery that they are HIV positive," they further revealed.

In cases where individuals are getting ARVs and giving them to spouses, it implies that more than the estimated 280,000 individuals are getting ARVs. Where they are getting them and hoarding them, then less than the estimated number are getting the medicines. According to AVERT, an international organisation fighting HIV/AIDS, only 39% (less than half) individuals in need of ARVs are getting them.

If this figure is lower, as the doctors estimate, then there is urgent need to increase on the number of HIV positive individuals on treatment. In fact, Dr Stephen Watiti is of the opinion that all individuals that need ARVs should have them provided by the government. "We should have a programme dubbed ARVs for all just as we have prosperity for all," Watiti says.

Watiti says there is need to end stigma, so that HIV positive people can open up if they so choose to. Dr Watiti is HIV positive. He mentions two individuals in the medical personnel who assumed other personalities in order to access treatment.

"A colleague opened up a file under false names because he was embarrassed about his status. When he came for his next visit, he could not remember the false name," Watiti says.

Another colleague assumed the identity of a dead client and started receiving his ARVs because he didn't want to be registered as HIV positive.

The Friends of AIDS Foundation is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.

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