Panafrican News Agency - March 10, 1999
Tepitapia Sannah, PANA Correspondent
According to the March-April issue of the WHO Africa Regional Office newsletter, the Ugandan ministry of health recently introduced the treatment, called Hyper Active Antiretroviral Therapy or HART.
Doctors say HART, which consists of a combination of drug, "is reputed to be the most reliable and effective treatment for AIDS so far."
Once taken, the drugs attack the virus that causes AIDS, they said. The combination of two or three drugs slows down or even stops the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) from multiplying in the body.
Experts classify the drugs as being "so effective that if taken property, they can reduce the amount of the virus to the extent that even sensitive tests may not detect it in the body."
Stopping the reproduction of the virus makes the infection-fighting cells attack-free and better prepared to reproduce themselves and fight infections, including HIV.
Uganda and Cote d'Ivoire were included in the Joint United nations Programme on HIV/AIDS drug access initiative project that seeks to provide wider access to HIV related drugs in developing countries.
Other experts, say however, that the drug combination is not a cure adding that people who use the drug "will still have the virus in their bodies and are still able to infect other people."
These point to the fact that HIV patients have to take drugs for a lifetime, otherwise the virus would start reproduction.
Being on the drug for lifetime raises concern among Ugandan health authorities that the treatment "is too costly for most Ugandans."
The three-drug therapy costs about 800,000 Ugandan shillings (580 US dollars) monthly, while a two-drug therapy costs 290 shillings after huge subsidies by manufacturers involved in the pilot scheme.
Senegal has also introduced a small pilot project to treat 55 people with antiretrovirals, which have helped to improve the health situation of HIV patients in rich countries.
The cardinal aim of the antiretrovirals project is to increase access to HIV/AIDS related drugs for managing diseases, including tuberculosis, pneumonia and fungal infections.
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