HIV patients sue gov’t over Septrin stockout
Septrin is an essential anti-biotic drug in the treatment of HIV /Aids. HIV/Aids patients Grace Akite and Lawrence Kivumbi, claim that failure by the government and NMS to supply Septrin in public health facilities in Uganda is a violation of their right to health and dignity.
Kivumbi, a male champion for people living with HIV/Aids from Kiboga district said; ‘there has been a stockout of Septrin at Lwamata health centre III since March to date.
“My viral load has increased since stockouts for Septrin started. I am psychologically tortured by the fear of stockouts of this kind. In my capacity as a male champion for drug adherence, I have witnessed patients die and lose hope in coming to the facility since there are no drugs to sustain their lives,” he said.
“In April 2018 we buried one of our peers who couldn’t afford to buy Septrin in village at Shs 400 on a daily basis to supplement the ARVs,” Kivumbi added.
He said, failure to provide Septrin in hospitals threatens the right to life and breaches government’s core obligation to provide essential drugs contrary to articles 8A, 20, 22, 24 and 45 of the 1995 Uganda Constitution.
“As applicants, we demand that the court should order the government to provide uninterrupted supply of Septrin to all public health facilities immediately to avoid people dying,” Kivumbi said.
Kenneth Mwehonge, the coordinator at Health Promotion and Social Development (HEPS- Uganda) said, the issue of stockout of medicines in Uganda is chronic and persistent in the country, and they have now appealed to ministry of Health and the NMS to intervene to prevent increasing number of Ugandans who lose their lives due to lack of Septrin.
“The Ugandan government has a minimum core obligation to take reasonable steps to ensure the satisfaction of essential primary health care which includes provision of Septrin to persons living with HIV/Aids. Failure to do this, it means violations of fundamental human rights and our courts can hold the agencies responsible to account for. It is our sincere hope that supply of Septrin will be restored to prevent these violations,” Primah Kwagala, the manager for strategic litigation at Cehurd said.
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Prayer can heal AIDS, says health minister
She, however, said medical workers and the general public should be cautious about people who claim they were healed of HIV.
“I am sure and I have evidence that someone who was positive turned negative after prayers,” Ondoa told The Observer on last week, promising to ask colleagues in Arua hospital, where she once worked, to find the relevant documentation.
“While there [West Nile], we did thorough testing and saw all documentation of three people who were once positive. We tested them in different laboratories and the results were negative,” Ondoa told The Observer.
She had earlier told a press conference that while some people indeed turn out to be negative, others were either misdiagnosed or were not positive in the first place. In some cases, she said, a person may be negative but starts ARV treatment because they lost a partner to AIDS. Ondoa said usually, when a person is to start ARV treatment, all confirmatory tests should be done to be sure the person is indeed positive and eligible for ARVs.
Ondoa also clarified on recent reports that there is a shortage of ARVs in the country. She said there are enough ARVS in Uganda to last at least six months. She said the problem her ministry is facing with regard to ARVs is reaching all the people that need the treatment.
Population growth
Addressing a dissemination meeting by the Health Communication Partnership on July 26, Ondoa said Uganda’s first solution to bringing down the high population growth rate is to ensure that boys and girls go to school and stay in school. Girls are often married off young and start child bearing at a tender age after dropping out of school.The minister said government should particularly promote girls’ education because the more people are informed, the more they will act responsibly.
“When mothers are educated, they make informed decisions; they are employed and empowered. If they are not educated, they depend on men,” Ondoa said.
She added that one of the reasons why maternal mortality in Uganda is high, at 430 per 100,000, according to the Population Reference Bureau’s World Women and Girls Data Sheet of 2011, is because women have too many children too soon.
“Family planning, together with education, will help space children and parents will have numbers they are able to manage, making women’s health better,” Ondoa said.
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