Low access to anti-retroviral drugs for AIDS patients in Guinea
Conakry, Guinea (PANA) - Out of the 110,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in Guinea, only 48,000 have access to anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs), Kadiatou Bodié Baldé, vice-president of the Guinean Network of Associations of Infected and Affected Persons (REGAP+), told the Guinean Press Agency (AGP) here Saturday.
The same source said that Guinea currently has 142 voluntary testing centres and 766 prevention of mother-to-child transmission sites.
The UNAIDS projection to defeat AIDS by 2030 will be difficult to achieve in the country where, according to the source, only 62 per cent of the population have access to voluntary testing, 45 per cent are on treatment and only 23 per cent achieve viral load suppression.
Speaking on the sidelines of the 33rd World AIDS Day festivities on Wednesday, Mrs. Baldé, however, acknowledged that the Guinean authorities, technical and financial partners were making efforts to facilitate access to ARVs for patients.
She said testing kits were not often available in the sites, adding that community testing campaigns were increasingly rare, while the country was facing 7,200 new infections per year.
The failure of the supply chain, the shortages of ARVs, observed here and there in the care sites, especially the molecules of the second line and those for children constitute a hindrance for the eradication of the disease, she denounced.
This state of affairs dangerously affects the lives of people living with HIV/AIDS, especially those living in the interior of the country.
She also noted that stigma and discrimination from the community and some health workers, the high cost of some tests, including chest X-ray, contributed to the abandonment of treatment by some patients.
The coordinator of the National AIDS Control Programme (CNLS) and hepatitis, Dr. Youssouf Koïta, said the HIV/AIDS prevalence rate was 1.5 in the country where it was considered stable.
He added that this rate was stable, even regressing, specifying that the prevalence has gone from 1.7 peer cent 5 years ago to 1.5 per cent.
The theme of the 33rd World AIDS Day was "End Inequality. End AIDS. End the pandemics".
-0- PANA AC/JSG/SOC/BBA/RA 4Dec2021
