Government has been urged to take seriously the shortage of ARVs as the impact on patients may be difficult to address.
Former Health Minister, Professor Nkandu Luo says government should not pay a deaf ear to the matter.
She warned of the risk of patients developing resistance if ARVs are not made available to people living with HIV and AIDS.
And Pro. Luo says government should continue to lobby donors to fund the health sector.
Meanwhile, Professor Luo has described the procurement of mobile hospitals as a waste of public resources.
She says if the mobile hospitals failed to work in 1991 when the country’s road infrastructure was good, she wondered how they will work now that the infrastructure is deplorable.
[ MUVI ]
It is not only the responsibility of government to lobby donors to fund the health sector. NGOs should also help. Some NGOs are making it difficult for government to successfully lobby for funds as they seem to suggest that such support is always inevitably misused. We know the current government is not perfect but always critizing it is not helping matters. Let the Post for example lobby donors to support RB led government on this issue. When it comes to health matters let us speak as one…sickness does not discriminate on political lines!!!
nkandu luo the worst health minister we have ever had even sata a lay person did better maybe with help from his doctor wife. luo just shut the fuucki up
Very dicey situ!
Prof Luo’s comment is valid. Because the majority of youths do not take seriously HIV/AIDS messages, and especially the need to use condoms as a way to stop the spread of the HIV virus, the Government redirect anti AIDS activism from prevention campaigns to measures that cushion suffering . The rates of HIV infection are not on the decline simply because youths no longer fear the virus. Statistics show that only one in every ten sexually active young women carries a condom or uses one during sex. For males the case is one in every five. There is a tendency for women to depend on their male counterparts to use a condom. When the male is not willing to use one, then the woman would rather agree to have unprotected sex.
These realities call for policy shifts. Much sensitisation has been done at very high cost but with very little success. Therefore there is need for the Government to redirect resource use to make ARVs available to the ever increasing number of HIV+ individuals.
I hope Kunda could back the idea of getting these ARVs in good time being in the same position as these people who are suffering though he is in a much better advantange position of getting treatment abroad himself.
#4 good comment. i must add that ARVs have also reduced the rates of transmission for those that have successful on treatment. so having shortages of these drugs simply reverses the gains made.
Nkandu Luo: What are your findings on Sondashi fimofimo?
Tribalist,
Zambia’s Condoms dont stop the spread of HIV
Iwe TREASON @ # 9, stop misleading people! Use of condoms need to be encouraged so that no more new people get infected. # 4 is right, the cultural-social orientation of Zambian women depending on male partners to use condoms should be changed. Zambian women who are sexually active with different partners or those with HIV infected partners must always take the first initiative to use a condom with every sexual encounter. It is our lives in danger with this deadly virus!
The MMD must ensure that ARVs are available for all our people who are infected. This is a measure of their commitment to the health welfare of the Zambians.
Iwe TREASON @ # 9, stop misleading people! Use of condoms need to be encouraged so that no more new people get infected. # 4 is right, the cultural-social orientation of Zambian women depending on male partners to use condoms should be changed. Zambian women who are sexually active with different partners or those with HIV infected partners must always take the first initiative to use a condom with every sexual encounter. It is our lives in danger with this deadly virus!
The MMD must ensure that ARVs are available for all our people who are infected. This is a measure of their commitment to the health welfare of the Zambians
Infidelity+deception+retribution are playing a major role in the spread.
# 9 you are the biggest disaster on the blog
Number 9 has a point, in some studies condoms have been shown to be 70-80% effective. Would you like to fly on a plane that has 70% chance of not crashing? So people have put too much faith in condoms and thinkits 100 % and go on being reckless. Know whom you chinda and try to chinda less is the lesson here. As regards prof Luo she failed miserably as minister of health. she must just keep quiet.
#14 with proper and consistent use condoms are 100% effective in preventing HIV and pregnancy. contrary to your assertion condoms has contributed heavily contributed to HIV and other STDs