AIDS patients die early for lack of drugs

The villagers don't recognise her any more. Regina Nakibuule, 40, lies on a sponge mattress on the floor. Her skin and bones rise barely six inches, her half-dead eyes stare out from two deep holes.

Blood vessels run like wires down her emaciated hands. You can count her ribs, and two lean legs like drumsticks stick out from under the cotton blanket.

The people of Busebwe village in Uganda still remember Regina for her attractive, round figure that captured the heart of George Ssebyala in 1989. But now Regina, mother of five children aged 9 - 17, has been lying on this mattress in her home for six months.

"I have a cough and chest pain. Breathing is painful. I have sores in the throat. I can't eat," Regina whispers. She and her husband George Ssebyala, 54, tested HIV positive in October 2001.

In mid June 2001, Regina reported to Mitala Maria Health Centre, 10 km from her home, complaining of headaches, fever, joint pains and epigastric pains. She went back to treat fever, diarrhoea and vaginal candidiasis in mid January 2002. In late May she was treated for fever, oral sores, diarrhoea and skin itching.

The drugs Regina received were supplied through World Vision's Buwama project, supported by child sponsors in Australia. "World Vision gives drugs worth about NZ$1000 to NZ$2000 to Mitala Maria Health Centre every three months," explains Tom Kabugu, a World Vision community worker. The centre is treating about 310 AIDS patients in of which twenty have Tuberculosis.

"Anti-retrovirals could improve Regina's life in one month," says Kampala-based Dr Daniel Kibuuka Musoke, who visits the Centre weekly.

The need for drugs to treat opportunistic infections that take advantage of the weakened immune systems of HIV-positive patients is overwhelming in Buwama and other parts of Uganda. Opportunistic infections include Tuberculosis, pneumocyctis carinii pneumonia, cryptococal meningitis, hepatitis, pelvic inflammatory disease and fungal infections. In December last year, when drugs were not available at the Mitala Maria Health Centre, eighteen AIDS patients died.

About two million of Uganda's estimated 23 million people have HIV. Only 10,000 AIDS patients are getting anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment, which costs at least NZ$90 per month. ARVs hinder the multiplication of HIV and reduce its presence in the blood, thereby improving the health of the patient.

The outcry for treatment for people living with AIDS is worldwide. The Chairman of the International AIDS Society Joep Lange told delegates at an International AIDS Conference in Barcelona recently that, "If we can get Coca Cola and water to every individual on earth, it should not be impossible to get anti-retrovirals to them to save lives."

Nelson Mandela told delegates at the same conference that, "We must find ways to make life-saving treatment available to all who need it regardless of whether they can pay for it." At present, only 30,000 of the millions of AIDS patients in Africa are currently getting treatment.

World Vision is already working to increase HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention, as well as providing counselling, care and food supplements to people infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. The organisation is seeking ways to provide effective treatment to people living with AIDS in Buwama and 13 other areas in Uganda, including the Rakai area, home to Rakai Kooki project supported by many New Zealand Child Sponsors and Global Aid Partners.

By Simon Peter Esaku, World Vision