Panafrican News Agency - March 3, 1999
Melvis Dzisah, PANA Correspondent
According to the national anti-HIV/AIDS committee, there are about one million HIV seropositives and nearly 90,000 AIDS patients in Cote d'Ivoire, with a population of nearly 17 million.
The UNAIDS pilot project was launched in the country in June to assist HIV/AIDS victims, mostly the poor to have access to treatments at minimal costs.
Out of 4,000 persons officially declared and registered at accreditation centers throughout the country, 1,000 have demanded to be taken charge of socially due to their inability to pay for their treatments, Ouatara Lassina, the antiretroviral project director, said.
He said his outfit has made notable progress in the area of the cost of treatment. In bitherapy for example, cost of treatment has been reduced from 600,000 CFA francs to 100,000 francs and 25,000 francs for the visibly sick.
However, according to a local NGO, Medical Access Cote d'Ivoire, which is responsible for negotiating for the reduction in the costs of medicines, the project's achievements so far "was like a drop of water in the ocean."
"The majority of the sick people whom we have counted are very poor and cannot ensure their monthly treatment at the cost of 25,000 CFA francs," it said. It added that even the bitherapy treatment, despite its exhaustive cost, does not improve the state of the sick, who when abandoned could not assure tritherapy treatment which is more adequate but "sadly costs 286,000 CFA francs a month."
With the treatment presently beyond the pockets of the most needy, various health NGOs in the country are urging the government to reduce the cost of tritherapy treatment.
But this opinion is not shared by the health minister, Maurice Kakue Guilkahue, who argues that the demand is impossible since Western pharmaceutical companies which produce the HIV drugs are unwilling to sell cheaply to poor needy countries.
According to Medical Access Cote d'Ivoire, presently, out of the 1,000 patients accredited to be taken charge of socially, half have so far obtained a reduction from 600,000 francs to 100,000 francs monthly for bitherapy treatment.
This has provoked observers to wonder whether the ongoing pilot project would ever achieve its objectives in Cote d'Ivoire, since 50 percent of HIV seropositives in the country are very poor.
HIV/AIDS was first diagnosed in Cote d'Ivoire in 1985. The social assistance aspect of the project is being financed through a 600-million-franc from the National Solidarity Fund created by the government plus a similar amount from France to support mother to child prevention.
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