The National Programme to fight AIDS (NACP) in Liberia says it is concerned about the future of programmes distributing antiretroviral (ARV) medicines after a grant from international financing body, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, ends in December.
In June 2004 the Global Fund approved a request by the Liberian government to provide US$7.6 million over two years to fight AIDS in this small country, which had been ravaged by 14 years of civil war. Programmes for scaling up HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment were launched in December of the same year but, according to Lwopu Bruce, director of the NACP, without new funding these initiatives will stop at the end of 2006.
The country lacks basic health infrastructures, as well as reliable water, electricity and road systems, and Bruce has predicted that the government will be unable to provide ARVs when the Global Fund grant expires. Liberia has submitted a proposal for a new grant.
"We have asked the Global Fund to include Liberia in its next financing cycle [the sixth round], but if our request is rejected we shall be very worried indeed, as there are more and more people on ARV treatment," said Bruce. "It is the hope of receiving AVR treatment that keeps them alive."
The Fund received proposals for grants totalling US$5 billion over the next five years by the August deadline, and its Technical Review Panel will finish assessing the proposals in November, but spokesperson Jon Liden predicted there would be a shortfall.
Although 715 Liberians are receiving free ARV treatment from programmes financed by the Global Fund, the need far exceeds this figure.
"We have extended our programmes to fight HIV/AIDS to the rural regions. As a result, new people will be tested and will certainly start ARV therapy. The number of individuals whose state of health requires them to be treated will therefore increase and at least 1000 patients will need to begin ARVs between now and the end of the year," Bruce explained.
Jackline Toe of the Light Association, a Liberian association of people living with HIV, has pleaded for the ARV distribution programme to continue. "This is the main concern for people living with ARV. After November, if the stocks are exhausted and are not renewed, we shall die, because only the medication is allowing us to continue to live with this illness," she said.
Doctors at just three sites in the country are able to prescribe anti-AIDS drugs. Two of the sites are hospitals in the capital, Monrovia, and the third is a health centre for employees of a large rubber plantation about 50km from the city.
The Liberian government and its international partners have trained an additional 15 doctors to be able to prescribe the life-prolonging medication.
UNAIDS estimates that between 2 percent and 5 percent of Liberia's 3.3 million people were living with HIV in 2005.
In June 2004 the Global Fund approved a request by the Liberian government to provide US$7.6 million over two years to fight AIDS in this small country, which had been ravaged by 14 years of civil war. Programmes for scaling up HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment were launched in December of the same year but, according to Lwopu Bruce, director of the NACP, without new funding these initiatives will stop at the end of 2006.
The country lacks basic health infrastructures, as well as reliable water, electricity and road systems, and Bruce has predicted that the government will be unable to provide ARVs when the Global Fund grant expires. Liberia has submitted a proposal for a new grant.
"We have asked the Global Fund to include Liberia in its next financing cycle [the sixth round], but if our request is rejected we shall be very worried indeed, as there are more and more people on ARV treatment," said Bruce. "It is the hope of receiving AVR treatment that keeps them alive."
The Fund received proposals for grants totalling US$5 billion over the next five years by the August deadline, and its Technical Review Panel will finish assessing the proposals in November, but spokesperson Jon Liden predicted there would be a shortfall.
Although 715 Liberians are receiving free ARV treatment from programmes financed by the Global Fund, the need far exceeds this figure.
"We have extended our programmes to fight HIV/AIDS to the rural regions. As a result, new people will be tested and will certainly start ARV therapy. The number of individuals whose state of health requires them to be treated will therefore increase and at least 1000 patients will need to begin ARVs between now and the end of the year," Bruce explained.
Jackline Toe of the Light Association, a Liberian association of people living with HIV, has pleaded for the ARV distribution programme to continue. "This is the main concern for people living with ARV. After November, if the stocks are exhausted and are not renewed, we shall die, because only the medication is allowing us to continue to live with this illness," she said.
Doctors at just three sites in the country are able to prescribe anti-AIDS drugs. Two of the sites are hospitals in the capital, Monrovia, and the third is a health centre for employees of a large rubber plantation about 50km from the city.
The Liberian government and its international partners have trained an additional 15 doctors to be able to prescribe the life-prolonging medication.
UNAIDS estimates that between 2 percent and 5 percent of Liberia's 3.3 million people were living with HIV in 2005.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
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