Uganda: MP wants AIDS drugs in villages

By Chris Ocowun
ANTI-RETROVIRAL drugs should be made available at health units in the villages to save residents from travelling long distances to the main hospitals.

The Gulu district Woman MP, Betty Aol Ocan, made the appeal at the weekend while touring Palaro health centre. She asked the health ministry and other stakeholders to stock the health units with the drugs since many HIV-positive people were suffering in the villages because they did not have the transport fare to the main hospitals in Gulu town or to the sub-county health centres.

Health workers had said many residents were coming for voluntary counselling and testing but those found HIV-positive couldn’t access the life-saving drugs since the health units did not have them.

The medical officer for Palaro health centre, Denis Komakech, said the demand for the drugs was high yet they did not have them. “People living with HIV/AIDS have to walk up to Awach health centre IV to access ARVs. But many of them are weak and cannot walk long distances,” he explained.

“My major concern is reproductive health and I am happy to report that no mother has died in labour in Palaro sub-county because of the good job done by the health workers,” Komakech said.

“I thank the International Committee of the Red Cross, which has built for us an incinerator. We can eradicate malaria and cholera but cannot stop reproduction among our mothers.”

Aol also urged the health ministry to do more to improve reproductive health and prevent mother-to-child transmission of the virus. She noted that many IDPs were abandoning the camps and returning to the villages.

This article was published in The New Vision Uganda on 4th June 2008