Programme launched to boost ARV treatment capacity

Uganda’s health ministry, in partnership with the US Agency for International Development (USAID), on Thursday launched a three-year programme to build an infrastructure for local organisations to provide anti-retroviral (ARV) therapy throughout the country. Health Minister Brig Jim Muhwezi signed the US $6.2 million deal with Connie Newman, USAID's Assistant Administrator for Africa and Uganda's Joint Clinical Research Centre (JCRC) boss Dr Peter Mugyenyi. The deal is a preamble to the launch of ARV services in 22 sites across Uganda. It is believed that roughly 200,000 of the 1.1 million people living with HIV in Uganda need life-extending ARV therapy, yet only a handful of sites are currently able to provide comprehensive ARV services. The new initiative aims to make treatment readily available to 60,000 people in the lifespan of the programme. It also includes testing and counselling services as well as the ARV drugs themselves, which have had about US $2 million earmarked for them. Dr Akol Zainbe, a ministry official working on the programme, told PlusNews there were no known restrictions placed on who Uganda is permitted to purchase the drugs from. "As I understand it, in this specific deal we will be buying both branded and generic copies of antiretroval drugs and that is largely up to us," she said.