HIV care and treatment boosted in northern Uganda

Feb 17, 2014

In this era of HIV treatment with Anti-Retroviral drugs, CD4 count machines are indispensable and a very critical component of medical equipments

By Michael Ochora

In this era of HIV treatment with Anti-Retroviral drugs, CD4 count machines are indispensable and a very critical component of medical equipments as it helps not only in guiding choice of drugs for HIV patient but most importantly is assessing the patient’s response to the treatment regimen.


For a long time, HIV clients were enrolled into care and treatment based on the WHO staging of clinical presentation. Fortunately, this trend has fast changed and now, HIV positive clients can be initiated based of the actual CD4 count level as determined by the latest CD4 machine technology.

Northern Uganda in particular that has the highest HIV prevalence in the country at 8.4% is blessed to have a number of the CD4count machines in several public hospitals supplied by the Ministry of Health.

For the rural communities in northern Uganda, HIV clients have been saved from the risk of being started on ARVs without having their CD4 levels checked. Out of about 57 ART health facilities in the sub region, close to 30 facilities have been supplied with functional CD4 count machines and related supplies like cartridges that should enable it run efficiently.

The government through the MOH has come up with strategies to strengthen the lab system, through what is called the lab HUB to enhance functionality of laboratory services at lower level facilities. This process must be fast tracked so that these lab HUBs are up and running. This will ensure that tests such as CD4 are easily available for those who need it.

The writer is the communications and knowledge sharing manager, NU-HITES Project
 

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