Your daily Selection of IRIN Africa PlusNews reports, 4/7/2005

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1 - UGANDA: Free ARVs for HIV-positive civil servants

1 - UGANDA: Free ARVs for HIV-positive civil servants

NAIROBI, 7 April (PLUSNEWS) - Some 10,000 Ugandan government workers living with

HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, will receive free antiretroviral (ARV) drugs,

the minister for economic monitoring, Omwony Ojwok, told PlusNews on Thursday.

" The project will help civil servants - a group that has not previously been

targeted by government - to receive free ARV treatment, " he said. " It will take

place in phases - the initial phase started in early 2005. "

He added that although no concrete figures were available for the number of

public servants who were HIV-positive, the figure of 10,000 was based on an

epidemiological study by the ministry of health. Uganda has a civil service of

approximately 230,000.

" The cost of educating and training these highly specialised people - who are

responsible for drawing up and planning government policies - is very high, "

Ojwok said. " Their expertise is not easily replicated. "

As part of the initiative, he said, workers would receive counselling and

testing. Those found to be HIV-positive would be referred to a hospital to

receive ARV therapy.

One major problem the project faced, he added, was the stigma attached to

HIV/AIDS, which could stop many civil servants from getting tested.

Ojwok said: " Many of our people are still unwilling to go and get tested - this

is an obstacle we must overcome, because it means we may continue to lose

valuable members of the public service from this problem. "

In June 2004, the ministry of health began distributing free ARVs countrywide to

those unable to afford them. According to the US Presidential Emergency Fund for

AIDS Relief, Uganda's Joint Clinical Research Centre is the largest provider of

ARVs in sub-Saharan Africa.

The progress Uganda has made in the provision of ARVs has of late come under

threat, as India's lower parliamentary chamber recently passed a bill that could

see the production of generic drugs, including ARVs, are under threat. India is

one of the world's largest ARV producers.

At least 80 percent of ARVs used in Uganda are made in India, and the ministry

of health has cautioned that the implementation of the legislation could

severely affect the provision of the much-needed treatment.

Uganda's HIV prevalence rate has come down from over 20 percent in the 1980s to

around six percent. Nevertheless, one million Ugandans have died due to the

pandemic, 78,000 of them in 2003 alone.

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