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Antiretrovirals to arrive today – Minister

Sep 03, 2010 News

A supply of some 3,000 bottles of the much needed Efavirenz, antiretroviral medication is scheduled to arrive in the country this morning, thereby bringing relief to the health sector which has been battling with a shortage of the drug for some time.
Minister of Health, Dr Leslie Ramsammy told this publication last evening that his Ministry has been able to confirm that the medication, along with several others, will arrive aboard an Amerijet Cargo flight. Another supply of about 14,000 bottles is scheduled to arrive soon after, according to the Minister, which will ensure that the local health sector has an adequate supply of the drug until this time next year.
The shortage of Efavirenz had resulted in some persons living with HIV/AIDS being unable to access a treatment regiment required to adequately control the virus, thus reducing its impact on the immune system.
As a result of the shortage, some already accessing the treatment regiment, a combination of Efavirenz and Truvada, were forced to revert to using a single drug. This development, the Minister said, was recognised as a serious problem.
“For some patients we have a part of their medication but we are hopeful it will not be for long,” Dr. Ramsammy had noted on Monday.
The Minister revealed yesterday that the Ministry has since signed a contract with the International Pharmaceutical Agency, through which the drugs will be imported. The shortage of the drug had created quite a scare among Persons Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHAs) as well as concerned organisations, including the National Aids Committee.
The committee in a statement had emphasised its concern about the dilemma, even accentuating the problematic potential it could pose to the patients that are accessing the antiretroviral.
With the arrival of the drugs today, the Minister is confident that the problem will be rectified as persons will be able to access the full treatment regiment again.
Dr. Ramsammy had indicated that the problem was a countrywide one, but resulted through no fault of Ministry of Health officials. The Ministry had never before faced such a problem and usually received its antiretroviral stock from Europe in a timely manner, as per order. However, the situation, the Minister said, stemmed from a shipment problem which saw only one type of HIV drug arriving as at the last arrival date, about two weeks ago.
The health sector currently has sufficient supply of Truvada but did not receive Efavirenz, which is recommended to treat some patients whose condition requires that they be treated with a cocktail comprising the two pills. As such, the Minister asserted that not all of the patients were affected by the shortage of the drug but rather those that are required to take a combination of pills.
In recognition of the problem, the Ministry had sought assistance from Suriname and was able to borrow a quantity of the much needed Efavirenz to alleviate the situation. That stock had however depleted. As a result, some patients were only being offered part of the recommended treatment.
“This means that if we don’t have both within a few days we could have a bit of a problem because it is never good to have an interruption. We are hoping that in the next day or two that we can get some more drugs,” Minister Ramsammy had said on Monday.
The Ministry had also sought assistance from Jamaica and Haiti.
“Persons have asked why borrow more drugs but I don’t want to wait, people’s lives are involved here and I don’t want to take that chance of waiting…Two weeks ago our shipment was supposed to be here so we really can’t take chances. In addition we are borrowing and so we will have to send back when we do get our own supply,” the Minister had asserted.
Guyana has never experienced a problem with its antiretroviral supply before, a development the Minister attributed to the fact that more people are being placed on medication.

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