Source: Zim facing critical second-line HIV drug shortage – DailyNews Live
Staff Writer 28 August 2017
HARARE – Zimbabwe is suffering a shortage of imported second-line drugs to
treat HIV victims due to insufficient foreign exchange.
Health activists say thousands of patients on publicly-funded treatment
programmes are at risk because of the shortage of Abacavir, forcing them
to take lower dosages or none at all.
Patients are being given a week’s supply instead of three months’ supply.
Some activists said they were concerned the government was spending too
much on measures designed to help them win presidential and parliamentary
elections next year rather than on medicines. Officials denied the charge.
The Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (ZimRights) said seropositive
patients should access the second-line drug due to their bodies’
resistance, or reaction to first-line drugs.
ZimRights said this is a serious human rights issue given health rights
are guaranteed in the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human
Rights (UDHR)’ Article 25 (1) and Section 76 of the Constitution of
Zimbabwe.
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