Government (Kenya) hospitals to stock HIV/Aids drugs from Sept

[Ediacara]

Sunday, August 3, 2003

Government hospitals to
stock HIV/Aids drugs from Sept

Government hospitals will from next month start stocking HIV/Aids drugs, the Nairobi Provincial Aids Control Council chairman Mr Edward Kisaka has said.

He was speaking at Nairobi's Kariobangi South Friends Church HIV/Aids project, where he witnessed a donation of school uniforms to pupils from 22 primary schools in Embakasi who have lost their parents to the scourge.

Mr Kisaka however said the anti-retrovirals would be administered at a minimal fee. He lamented that even after the drugs' cost was reduced from Sh70,000 a dose per month to Sh3,000, most people still could not afford.

A group of doctors and nurses who would be used in the exercise were already undergoing specialised training, said Mr Kisaka, adding that the drugs plus good diet, could reduce the viral load to enable a patient live for up to 20 years.

More at the Daily Nation (Nairobi)