[pronut-hiv] HIV-Positive People in Kenya Selling Antiretroviral Drugs To Buy Food

["Pronut-HIV" <pronut-hiv@healthnet.org>]

Daily HIV/AIDS Report

Global Challenges | Inter Press Service Examines Issue of HIV-Positive
People in Kenya Selling Antiretroviral Drugs To Buy Food
[Jun 07, 2006] 
      The Inter Press Service on Friday examined how some HIV-positive
people in Kenya are selling their antiretroviral drugs to buy food. Some
people register at more than one treatment site so they can obtain extra
drugs, which they then sell, Patricia Asero, a member of the Kenya
Treatment Access Movement, said. She added that some HIV-positive people
who get their antiretroviral drugs from a single treatment site
sometimes sell their medications to buy food. These trends have raised
concerns about drug-resistant strains of the virus developing in Kenya,
the Inter Press Service reports. More than 200,000 of the roughly two
million HIV-positive people in Kenya need antiretroviral drugs,
according to the Inter Press Service. The government says the number of
people receiving the drugs has increased from 24,000 in 2004 to 39,000
in 2005, and the government expected to have 95,000 people on
antiretroviral drugs by the beginning of this year, the Inter Press
Service reports. Omu Anzala, a senior lecturer in the Department of
Medical Microbiology at the University of Nairobi's School of Medicine
in Nairobi, Kenya, said the government should be less concerned with the
number of people receiving antiretroviral drugs and focus more on the
"quality and sustainability of the service." Anzala said, "These numbers
mean nothing when the majority of the patients are skipping or selling
drugs," adding, "The fight against HIV/AIDS must be coupled with the
fight against poverty." Anzala called for the increased monitoring of
HIV-positive people on antiretroviral drugs, as well as monitoring for
drug-resistant strains of the disease. Other advocates in Kenya have
called for the government to focus more on nutrition in its HIV/AIDS
programs (Mulama, Inter Press Service, 6/2). 

http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=37742