WESTERN BUREAU:
THE MINISTRY of Health is to establish four HIV/AIDS treatment centres islandwide next year.
According to Dr. Yitades Gebre, Director of the National HIV/STD Control Programme, this venture will incur an initial set up cost of approximately $29.3 million.
"It will cost about US$250,000 in the first year to set up the programme plus an additional US$400,000 to develop it fully," he told The Gleaner.
This, he said, should spell hope for the 98 per cent of those affected by HIV and AIDS who cannot afford the maximum $40,000 a month treatment cost or even the minimum $15,000.
"The statistics show that some 400 sufferers of HIV and AIDS seek treatment at hospitals and health clinics across the island each year and there are approximately 900 AIDS sufferers and an estimated one per cent of the population infected with HIV," he said.
The figure of a 98 per cent inability to afford treatment came out of a study conducted in May.
Dr. Gebre said some 80 doctors who were treating HIV/AIDS patients revealed that less than two per cent of their patients could afford the double and triple combination therapy treatments that was necessary for the complete management of the disease.
Improved supply
"The establishment of these care centres will be alliance between government and the private sector," Dr. Gebre explained.
He added that these treatment sites will be established at existing health care facilities and will see a more structured and organised programme of treatment, better sensitised workers and an improved supply of medication.
"We have completed the proposal process and is now in discussion with various agencies such as Jamaica AIDS Support to determine how best to proceed," said Dr. Gebre.
He admitted that the discussions would also focus on the issue of stigmatisation of HIV/AIDS sufferers and what it would mean for them if they were identified through their association with the treatment sites.
According to Dr. Gebre the most potent of HIV drugs, the anti-retroviral medications such as AZT, are extremely expensive.
He noted that this high cost push treatment out of reach of most sufferers of the deadly, Human Immunodifficiency Virus, which leads to AIDS.
There are three kinds of anti-retroviral medications, the Protease Inhibitors being the most potent. These have been in existence since 1996.
The latest anti-retroviral drug to be approved for use in Jamaica, Ziagen, was launched in September by Glaxo Wellcome Caribbean.
The distributors said the drug has been in use for the past four years and is approved in at least three other Caribbean countries.
Ziagen brings to 13 the number of HIV/AIDS treatments available in Jamaica, Dr. Gebre reported.
