Sam Lawino
Gulu
HIV-infected persons in Gulu who rely on public hospitals for treatment have attacked the government following a delay in the supply of antiretroviral drugs in the district.
The patients are in trouble as government drags its feet over the supply of ARVs and medics at Gulu Referral Hospital continue to connive with richer patients and local leaders to steal the few available drugs for business. ARVs boost the immunity of Aids patients which raises survival chances. The scarcity means that these patients' lives are in serious danger.
One Taburi Okot, (50) who is living with the disease and has been getting drugs from Lacor Hospital told this reporter that Aids patients at Lacor have spent a month without accessing their routine treatment.
"It has now taken one month when we have not had ARV treatment, the doctors in Lacor Hospital tell us to buy them yet we do not have money. Life has become very miserable and anytime you will attend my burial," Mr Okot said.
He said medical workers at the hospital were open to them about what is happening and how they (patients who cannot afford ARVs) should find a way of coping with the reality on the ground.
"Since I retired from the army in 1992, my pension is not paid and how can I be in position to buy these drugs," he said.
An ARV dose costs about Shs75, 000 per month, a figure that could be well beyond what an entire householdfeed on within a similar period. The District Director of Health Services, Dr Paul Onek refused to comment because according to him, "he didn't have all the facts."
Mr Christopher Odong, an Aids patient who was admitted a month ago at Gulu Referral Hospital said he stayed for a week without the routine septrin prophylaxis treatment. He said doctors told him to buy the drug from a private pharmacy.
"Everyday, medical workers here tell me to buy septrin tablets but my family is too poor to afford these drugs. As a result, I have taken one week without treatment," he said.
A nurse at Gulu Referral Hospital who requested anonymity because she is not supposed to speak to journalists said her colleagues often steal drugs and stock them in their personal clinics from where patients access them at a cost.
At Lacor hospital, patients have attempted to get drugs where they are not registered.
The Medical Superintendent, Dr Hamilton Odong said Aids patients are registered into three categories where they receive ARVs drugs.
He said some patients get free drugs from PEPFAR, the US presidential support for Aids patients while others get them through the Ministry of Health and non-government organisations.
He said some patients who are benefiting from government sources and non-governmental organisations may have to buy if supply is delayed.
Gulu District HIV/Aids prevalence rate stands at 10.9 per cent but leaders say the figure could be more than the official record.
Trust in government health centres has for the last one year ebbed especially when medicines are being stolen with impunity by health workers.
Mid this month, a UPDF soldier was arrested with stolen boxes of malaria Coartem drugs from Aywe Health Centre II in the outskirts of the town but he was released without any charges being preferred against him.
Last year's investigation into the mismanagement and theft of drugs at Gulu Hospital pinned several local leaders and politicians.
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