In Kenya, persons living with HIV/AIDS fear dying because of a shortage of anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) to save them from the disease.
The patients have begun to put pressure on the government with protests.
Supplies of antiretrovirals (ARVs) have been stuck at Mombasa port since January because the donors, USAID, refused to distribute the drugs accusing the government medical supply authority of corruption and mismanagement.
Protesters wore t-shirts and carried posters with slogans like “A sick nation is a dead nation”, “Killer government” and “Release ARVs.”
Erick Okioma is 57- year- old HIV positive man. The widower and a father of four, says he’s almost running out of supplies of his ARVs.
It’s a critical need to keep him alive. Okioma wants the government to be proactive.
“The attention has been diverted to covid and that also has affected even community perception. People fear even getting covid than HIV, people are talking about covid and that way people might not even go to a facility to get tested, that is if test kits are there”, Okioma said.
Kenya receives ARVs as donations from around the world, including from organizations like the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Although that’s now resolved, the one and a half million or so Kenyans living with HIV are still struggling to access the medication they need to survive.