HIV sufferers running out of meds

ILOILO CITY—Two years ago, Artemus “Yomi” Arojado tested positive for the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), which weakens the immune system and leads to Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS).

Since then, he has been taking antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, which suppress the spread of the virus and slow the progress of the disease.

But Arojado, 33, fears that when he goes to a government center to replenish his supply of ARVs next week, there won’t be any.

“I can’t sleep at night. What will happen to me and my partner who is also HIV-positive?” he said.

Arojado is among thousands of HIV-positive persons who are facing a shortage of ARVs after three shipments of the medicines, which arrived last month, failed to get clearance for release from the Bureau of Customs (BOC) in Manila.

The three shipments, totaling 8.8 tons of pharmaceutical products intended for the Department of Health (DOH), arrived between Aug. 2-14 from the United Nations Children’s Fund office in Denmark.

The shipments have not been released from a private warehouse in Manila due to failure of the DOH to submit documents and pay duties and taxes amounting to at least P5 million, according to Charo Logarta-Lagamon, chief of the BOC’s public information and assistance division.

The Project Red Ribbon Care Management Foundation Inc., an organization of HIV sufferers and their supporters, expressed alarm over the delay and called for immediate action from the government.

Health Secretary Enrique Ona, in a statement on Sept. 3, said the DOH is “working on the immediate release” of the medicine shipment.

He said an initial batch would be released this week and two others next week.

“Currently, enough supply is available for these patients even as DOH awaits the release of those drugs now at Bureau of Customs,” Ona said in the statement.

The statement was silent on the reason for the delay of the release of the shipment.

The Research Institute for Tropical Medicine-AIDS Research Group (RITM-ARG), the main HIV and AIDS treatment center in the country, has started rationing its supply of ARVs.

If the shipments are not released by today (Sept. 5), however, HIV treatment would stop nationwide, according to an RITM-ARG report being quoted by the group of Arojado.

Missed dosages of ARVs can lead to the reactivation of the virus and lead to the virus being drug resistant.

“How can they allow this (delay in the release of the shipment) to happen?” Arojado said.