By Alex Ababio
Program manager of Ghana’s National AIDS Control Program Dr Stephen Ayisi-Addo has stated that the Coronavirus pandemic has had greater adverse effects on the production of the life-saving medicines such as antiretroviral drugs(ARV) for people living with HIV/aids in Ghana.
According to him, Covid -19 has impacted negatively on the supply and transportation of AVR which had led to increases in cost of the drugs.
Program manager Stephen Ayisi-Addo reiterated that this has impeded Ghana’s progress on its goal to fight HIV/AIDS in the country.
“We are working vary hard to improve the pipeline, the supply chain, especially for the exposed babies. In fact, there are scheduled orders that are coming. In fact, there are some as we speak now at the port that are being cleared.
Dr Stephen Ayisi-Addo made this disclosure when he was speaking to Ghanaian watch in Accra.
Dr Stephen Ayisi Addo indicated that the majority of HIV infections in the country at the end of 2020 were recorded among women.
He noted that ARV shortages in Ghana were not new, however, he quickly added that the latest shortage has been extremely worry because of greater infections of the disease among women and the nearly 30,000 children living with HIV in Ghana.
In the Ashanti region in particular Obuasi the situation was worse as women living with HIV/Aids in that particular part of the country poured out their frustration regarding the AVR shortages.
A widow with her children who are living with HIV/Aids noted :
” Sometimes I had to roam about at some health facilities to get the drugs. What is disturbing is that the supply is most a time just for a few days. In fact, at some point I stopped roaming about because I am a widow and the cost of transportation was overbearing on my finances. But weeks later, we started having skin rashes and developing sores on the mouth.
Speaking to Ghanaian Watch in an interview, the national president for the Ghana Network of Persons Living with HIV, Elsie Aye expressed deep concern about the situation, indicating that the worst brunt of COVID-19 was being experienced by the less privilege in the country.
She stressed that there was the need for Ghana to manufacture its own ARV.
” If we can produce AVRs in the country I don’t think all the bottlenecks including high tax and demanding for tax waivers, shortages and delay would be a problem, and eventually, it would reduce the cost of accessing ARVs in the country.”
He suggested that governments should give greenlight to multiple AVR producers to increase its supply .
“I think we should make sure that all medicines which have potency to prevent deaths of people living with HIV are produced by multiple producers including producers in the global south .There is the need to reform failing rules to intellectual property to ensure access to life saving science is no more dependent on the passport you possess .”