HIV/AIDS triple-therapy centre for Bangui

Construction of an HIV/AIDS triple-therapy centre in the Central African Republic (CAR) capital, Bangui, is due to begin in January, according to the special presidential adviser, Bernard Leclerc. Leclerc, who is a leading figure in the French anti-HIV/AIDS NGO Hanuman, told IRIN on Saturday that the 150-million-franc-CFA (US $230,769) centre would be installed with sophisticated equipment, and completed in mid-2003. He is seeking donor support for the project. "We are actively lobbying laboratories such as Merck in Paris and Glaxo, as well as the French Red Cross, which has many specialists in triple-therapy centres," he said. The CAR is also expected to contribute to the establishment of the centre. "The prime minister [Martin Ziguele] told me that the funds allocated to the building of the centre were available," Leclerc said. The chairman of the French Red Cross - which will help support the centre - would lay the foundation stone during his two-day visit to Bangui beginning on 30 January, Leclerc said. The treatment of HIV/AIDS patients was now expected to become cheaper because of the decreasing cost of drugs, Leclerc said. In September, the cost of HIV drugs decreased from 600,000 francs CFA to 22,815 francs CFA per person per month. In addition to the centre, Hanuman had set aside 20 million francs CFA for an HIV/AIDS research laboratory, which, Leclerc said, would "benefit both CAR physicians and medical students". He added that the University of Bangui had agreed, in principle, to put its abandoned laboratories at Hanuman's disposal. The laboratory was expected to become operational early in 2003. Hanuman had also already launched a research programme to investigate mother-to-child HIV contamination through breast milk. "We are selecting in three Bangui's maternity hospitals medical assistants, paediatric nurses and midwives, who will be collecting breast milk," Leclerc said. The samples would be examined by the Institute Pasteur of Bangui and by French laboratories, at a cost of $100,000 a year. All Hanuman's activities will have a co-coordinator in Bangui and another in Paris under the supervision of the CAR minister of health. The French doctor, Laurent Belec, created Hanuman in 2001 specifically to fight the HIV/ADIS scourge. Hanuman comprises CAR and French physicians, researchers, and many other experts in various areas whose activities are mostly carried out in France. Sacko Wilibiro, the coordinator of the country's anti-AIDS body, the Centre national de lutte contre le Sida, said on Tuesday that 14 percent of the population (that is between 200,000 to 300,000) were HIV positive. This makes the country the most affected in the subregion and the 10th in the world. The figure was made public in 2000 and is now being updated. "A new [HIV/AIDS] mapping is under way," Wilibiro said, "but we fear that the percentage may stagnate or even increase slightly."