ART stock-outs in the Free State place patients on death row
July 3, 2009 by StopStockouts · Leave a Comment
Submitted by Anso Thom and Lungi Langa
Tantaswa is 32 years old and lives in Pelindaba, in Bloemfontein’s Mangaung township. She tested HIV positive in October 2008 at National Hospital in Bloemfontein, with a CD4 count of 484. Her health swiftly deteriorated. “I had been coughing more often than usual and suffering from diarrhoea. I was not eating well and I had also lost a lot of weight,” she said.
Dissatisfied with the monitoring efforts of her local government clinic, Tantaswa consulted a private doctor. The doctor confirmed that she needed to start on ART immediately, and offered to sell her the pills at R300 per month. Having had to leave her R1000 per month job in a restaurant kitchen due to her poor health, it was an impossible task to meet these financial demands every month. After a donor-funded NGO informed her that they no longer had any capacity to help, Tantaswa was forced to return to the National Hospital. Again, she was turned away with the advice that she should buy the medication privately. This culture of passing the buck has left Tantaswa still awaiting treatment and living in fear of what could happen to her without ARVs.
“I am afraid that if my condition deteriorates I won’t be able to return to work and I won’t be able to support my child. But most of all I’m scared of dying while waiting for treatment,” she said.
Despite promises by the provincial Department of Health in the Free State that the ART moratorium would be lifted in February 2009, in March, doctors and activists continued to report that they still did not have access to the drugs within the province. The Southern African HIV Clinicians Society (SAHCS) conservatively estimates that about 30 people continue to die each day, due to their inability to access ART in the Free State. Tantaswa is fearful that she may one day be included in this figure.
“Death is painful and serious. I have seen other people die of this sickness and it scares me,” she admitted.
The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) continues to collaborate with the AIDS Law Project (ALP), the Confederation of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and other civil society and activist stakeholders to ensure that ART is made available to all those in need in the Free State and South Africa at large. TAC has held meetings, marches and pickets in the province to demonstrate its strong opposition to the violation of patients’ rights. TAC also picketed outside Parliament on the day of the finance minister’s budget speech to protest against the poor financial planning and budgeting mismanagement, which has resulted in ART stock-outs in the Free State.
1US$ = R10
Tatswana
SMS pill check findings released to Kenyan media
July 3, 2009 by StopStockouts · 1 Comment
The Kenyan team held a successful press conference on 30/06/09 with 22 journalists in attendance from various print, electronic and online media houses in the country. Patrick Mubangizi (HAI Africa), Emma Wanyonyi (CIN), David Musyoki (KEHPCA), and James Kamau (KETAM) spoke at the press conference while Eve Odette (OXFAM) moderated the event.
The stock-out story was aired on KTN TV, K24 TV, Kiss FM, Classic FM, Capital FM, KBC Radio, Ramogi Radio, Bibilia Husema, Nairobi Star newspaper, and Africa Science News Services (online) among others. The links to some of the articles that appeared are below.
http://www.capitalfm.co.ke/news/Local/Kenya-health-facilities-lack-drugs,-say-activists-4942.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzFvtUWy2DM&feature=channel_page
http://www.rhsupplies.org/about_us.html
During the SMS pill check week, data collectors were able to gather information from over 150 primary health facilities from around the country and with technical assistance from OSI fellow Michael Ballard, the information was uploaded on the stock-out site.
General findings indicated that stock outs of the EM is widespread and covers a wide range of the 10 essential drugs surveyed. The results will be used as an advocacy tool as the Kenyan team seeks to engage the government.
The team is still working towards engaging the government through the relevant Ministries and government agencies involved in medicine procurement and supply. In particular the team has requested a meeting with the two Health Ministries following which we intend to seek out the medicine supply agency (KEMSA).
The team has also written to the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and the Ministry of Finance in relation to taxation of Morphine which still contributes greatly to the unavailability and high cost of this drug. Morphine is commonly used by cancer and HIV/AIDS patients as a pain reliever.
Eve Odette, James Kamau, Patrick Mubangizi, Emma Wanyonyi, David Musyoki
Journalists at the Stop Stock-outs Conference
Mombasa forum a huge success!
July 2, 2009 by StopStockouts · Leave a Comment
The Kenyan team organised a successful public forum in Mombasa, the second largest city in Kenya, on June 23rd at the Mombasa Municipal Stadium. The public forum was intended to publicize the campaign and its objectives, to create public pressure for reforms within the Kenya Medical Supply Agency (KEMSA) and to publicize the SMS pill check week.
There were about 100 people in attendance comprised of Civil Society organizations (CSOs), Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) as well as the general public mobilized by the local administration. The attendees were very enthusiastic about the campaign and gave moving testimonies about their stock-outs experiences in the district. They were glad that the forum enlightened and educated them on their right to access medicine and to push government for the same. They said it was a good idea to have a forum such as this to share their plight in accessing essential medicine and to point out negligence among health workers in public health facilities.
The participants were enthusiastic and called on the stock-outs team to advocate for this issue so that it is widespread and called upon the government to act quickly to provide essential medicines in order to avert unnecessary deaths. The Kenyan team also launched the SMS campaign and informed the members of the public to text in when they experience stock-outs in public health institutions.
As a followup, the team intends to continue engaging local organizations and empowering them to be able to further involve the public through the local media. In addition, the team will demand that policymakers, politicians and parliamentarians put issues of essential medicines and drug availability on their agenda. A similar forum is planned for Kisumu, a city in the Western part of Kenya in the second week of July.
David Musyoki in the back with the crowd at the Mombasa forum.
The crowd at the Mombasa forum.
