AIDS drugs become more available to Belizeans
Medical advances around the world over the last decade have radically changed the prognosis for people with HIV and AIDS, as new drug treatments have greatly prolonged the length and quality of life for those infected. But for patients in Belize and other poor countries, the latest treatments have rarely become available, due to their high cost. That situation is changing, however, as more of these drugs are being made available at lower, albeit still high prices. But as I learned this morning, administering these new drugs is more complicated than simply popping a couple of Tylenol.
Janelle Chanona, Reporting
In the effort to combat the AIDS epidemic comprehensively, over the next two days, health care professionals from all over the country are participating in a workshop to prepare them to properly administer anti-retroviral treatment. According to the experts, this kind of preparation is vital to the life of the infected person.
Dr. Nosa Omo-Igbinowanhia, CAREC/WHO/PAHO Consultant
“You are going to start these patients on medications and in another two three days you’re going to get phone calls and you’re going to get these side effects. You have to be ready to deal with it, you have to be prepared. You have to have pre-knowledge of what to expect and how to treat them. The doctors might just be frightened and just stop the medication and this is you when to stop and when to change. You know what to do when the side effects come.”
According to the CAREC consultant, once treatment is available in Belize, more people will want to get tested.
Dr. Nosa Omo-Igbinowanhia
“I will tell you that when treatment starts you are going to see five to ten times that number come out to go and get tested. People that didn’t know already when come out and bring their relatives out, to say there is treatment now they have to come out and that is a very important step. When we know the people that have it when we know they are being treated, it is going to benefit the economy, it is going to prevent and reduce the risk of transmission.”
But the simple economic fact is that the treatment is very expensive.
Dr. Paul Edwards
“It is a cost of approximately three thousand to three thousand, six hundred Belize dollars per person per year. we’re talking only anti-retroviral. There are other medications like flucanozole, which is forty-four dollars per day per person; that is against fungal infections. You’re talking about Isoniazid, about twenty-five cents per medication. All of these add up to a total that is incredibly, but we are looking forward to probably next year. And we’re taking the different steps that are imperative to have a good, a sustainable programme which will treat people living with the disease in the right and proper way.”
Dr. Edwards says the government is seeking global funding to make sure the people living with AIDS will have permanent access to anti-retrovirals once the programme begins.
Dr. Paul Edwards
“There will come a time when each and every Belizean infected with the virus and who has a need for anti-retroviral therapy will have that available. But initially it will not be that way.”
According to Edwards, two populations that will have priority in the program will be pregnant women and young children. Reporting for News 5, I am Janelle Chanona.
Administration of the new drugs will not begin until the new year at the earliest, and funding is still being sought to subsidise the cost of the treatment.
