[pronut-hiv] Uganda: Poverty Hinders HIV/ Aids Fight in Masaka

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Uganda: Poverty Hinders HIV/ Aids Fight in Masaka

The Monitor (Kampala)
March 22, 2006 
Sadab Kitatta Kaaya
Masaka 

ADMINISTRATION of anti-retroviral drugs is facing a setback because
patients lack enough food, the medical superintendent of Masaka Hospital
has said.

Dr Nathan Kenya Mugisha said ARVs enhance a patient's appetite and many
patients on the drug lack the capacity to get enough food.

"Many of our patients are poor. They don't have the means to get enough
food. In turn, some of them end up giving up the drug," Mugisha said on
March 15.

This was during a function at which 53 patients on ARVs received
bicycles from the Aids Health Care Foundation (AHCF) at the Uganda Cares
Clinic at Masaka Hospital.

According to WWW. health24.com, people living with HIV need a
well-balanced diet because it slows down the onset of HIV to Aids and
improves the patient's quality of life.

"Our development partners need to come in and help us assist these
people to supplement their diet. This is the only way we shall achieve
our goal because the patients are threatening to give up on getting
treatment," he said.

Last year, the LC5 Chairman for Rakai district, Mr Vincent Semakula
Settuba, told journalists that people living with HIV/Aids in the
district were giving up the drug because of the high appetite for food
the drug causes.

He said due to the long drought that hit the district, food production
was low yet the demand was high.

Mugisha expressed worries about the low number of children on ARV
treatment.

"Only 11 per cent of the patients on ARV treatment are children. This
number is below the targeted 15 per cent," he said. The AHCF Africa
Bureau Chief, Dr Bernard Okong, said the enrolment of ARV patients at
the clinic had increased from 50 in 2001 to over 2,400 patients today.

The AHCF Vice President, Mr Peter Reis, said his organisation would
facilitate over 500 people living with HIV/Aids with bicycles to ease
their transport to the clinic for treatment.

He urged them to mobilise more patients for free ARV treatment.