Dr Stephen Ayisi Addo, Programme Manager of the National HIV and AIDS Control Programme (NACP), has asked the government to mobilise resources for HIV response to withstand the shocks of a funding crisis.
Dr Ayisi Addo said funds from partners and reliable sources were becoming challenging, hence the need to strategize and take charge of the country’s own health and avoid any crisis, going forward.
The Programme Manager made the call in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, following the recent executive order by the United States (US) to halt disbursing of HIV medications to poor countries.
This follows a recent article in which the US Department of State announced an immediate 90-day funding pause for all foreign assistance, including funding and services supported by PEPFAR.
The executive order announcing a “90-day pause in United States foreign development assistance for assessment of programmatic efficiencies and consistency with United States foreign policy” was one of the first major foreign policy decisions of the President Donald Trump administration.
The NACP Programme Manager said though the PEPFAR Programme was in three regions of Ghana, which included Western, Western North, and Ahafo, the directive would not significantly affect them because the programme did not purchase HIV medications.
He explained that funding of Anti Retroviral medication was largely from the Global fund and the government of Ghana, saying, “So we are not actually affected, PEPFAR does not buy commodities for us.”
He indicated that other countries such as Tanzania, South Africa, Kenya, and others that were directly or fully dependent on PEPFAR, would rather experience the deep crisis unless their governments intervened.
Dr Ayisi Addo indicated that there was no cause for alarm as Ghana could boost enough HIV medicines in the country.
“For now, our situation is good, so there is no problem; when it comes to treatment, the medications we have in the country are for all the regions, so they will not be affected because the medicine is bought by the government and the Global Fund.”
Mr. Ernest Ortsin, the President of Ghana HIV and AIDS Network (GHANET), appealed to the US government to consider the ramifications of the executive order as it would have dire consequences on countries that rely solely on the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) for their HIV response.
“We really do not know the intentions behind it, but there are very poor and vulnerable people around the world who depend on these medications for their daily survival.
“If the abrupt order is not reversed immediately, it is going to have dire consequences on persons living with HIV in poor and resource-constrained countries,” he added.
He called for the empowerment of local manufacturers to develop HIV medications locally.
“We need to also intensify prevention programming to get people to be aware of the disease and protect themselves and prevent themselves from getting infected.
“Similarly, we need to ensure that persons who have already been identified will stay on treatment so that they don’t become infectious and infect other people,” Mr Ortsin stated.
He reiterated the need for the government to establish the National HIV and AIDS Fund to support the country’s HIV response to ensure that such directives in the future did not affect Ghana’s efforts.
Meanwhile, The United States Secretary of State, Mr. Marco Rubio, has approved an “Emergency Humanitarian Waiver,” which would allow people to continue accessing HIV treatment funded by the US across 55 countries worldwide.
According to the UNAIDS, more than 20 million people living with HIV, representing two-thirds of all people living with HIV receiving treatment globally, were directly supported by the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) – the world’s leading HIV initiative.
It said the waiver approved the continuation or resumption of “life-saving humanitarian assistance” which applied to core life-saving medicine and medical services, including HIV treatment, as well as to supplies necessary to deliver such assistance.
Ms Elsie Ayeh, President of NAP + Ghana, said the waiver had, so far, been a relief to persons living with HIV, adding that the situation would have been serious if the directive was fully implemented.
She said: “Looking at our situation in Ghana, it would have been terrible because we still have many people who have not been put on treatment, and some people on treatment had been off treatment and fell ill and all that.
“It means that the number of AIDS patients that we would be seeing in Ghana would be more because we have about 334 000 persons living with HIV, and out of that, we have over 200,000 on treatment; you can imagine the number of deaths over the period if that should happen.”
She indicated that the situation would be dire for the lives of children, mothers, and positive pregnant women.
“This is a wakeup call for the government to show commitment to the HIV national response, particularly the production of ARVs locally; we should not rest on our oars; right now, we really need to put our thoughts together and avoid future crises,” she added.
GNA
