MPs Reject Free HIV Drugs For Sub-Counties

Sep 05, 2002

The parliamentary committee on HIV/AIDS yesterday opposed government policy to provide free treatment for two people per sub-county, writes <b>Hamis Kaheru.</b>

The parliamentary committee on HIV/AIDS yesterday opposed government policy to provide free treatment for two people per sub-county, writes Hamis Kaheru.

Steven Chebrot (Tingey) said the committee could not support the policy because it promoted discrimination against patients.

“How do you select the two and how do you determine whether they should be children, women or men?” he asked.

Chebrot said the Government had the responsibility to treat all the citizens. He said some foreign governments and organisations had offered anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) cheaply but Uganda lacked the mechanism to access them.

Committee chairman Dr. Elioda Tumwesigye (Sheema North) said Uganda had received US$9m (sh16.2b) from the Global Fund on HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis for anti-retroviral drugs.

MPs resolved to summon health minister Jim Muhwezi and Prof Gilbert Bukenya, the presidency minister who is also the chairman of the national coordinating committee on the global AIDS fund, to explain.
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