Activists rap MPs over AIDS funds

May 25, 2009

NAIROBI<br><br>Ugandan HIV activists have expressed concern over a recommendation by Parliament’s budget committee that the allocation for anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs be cut.

NAIROBI

Ugandan HIV activists have expressed concern over a recommendation by Parliament’s budget committee that the allocation for anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs be cut.

The national budget for 2008/09 allocated sh76b to purchasing ARVs, but the house standing committee recommended that the amount be cut to sh40b in the 2009/2010 budget.

“We recognise that HIV is a serious disease, but it is not the only disease affecting Ugandans,” Rose Akol Okullo, the committee chairperson, said.

“Cancer and diseases afflicting women need equal attention if we are to meet the MDG (UN Millennium Development Goal) on health.”

Okullo said her committee’s recommendation was based on information that only about half the ARV allocation in 2008/09 had actually been spent on the drugs.

More than 300,000 HIV-positive people in Uganda need ARVs. AIDS activists argue that the committee’s recommendation will allow the Government to evade its responsibility to provide drugs to them.

“Other diseases, such as diabetes and cancer, are critical, but HIV/AIDS is a unique disease with unique ramifications, Beatrice Were, a prominent HIV-positive AIDS activist, said.

“The consequences of treatment interruption as a result of drug shortages would be large numbers of people developing resistance, making treatment even more expensive and risking death on a large scale.”

Uganda’s ARV programme is still 95% donor-funded; the two main contributors are the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Were argued that the Government could not simply push its obligations on to donors.

Beatrice Rwakimari, the chair of the house committee on HIV, said her committee was disappointed by the recommendation and would meet with Okullo to discuss it.
IRIN

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