22 February 2008
editorial
Kampala — People living with HIV in Hoima District are crying out to government to provide CD4 count testing machines to public health centres to enable them have regular testing and monitoring of their immunity strength.
The lack of such vital machines in Hoima has led to transporting only a few blood samples of people living with HIV to regional hospitals for CD4 tests. The CD4 tests tell the extent of the progression of HIV/Aids in a person and determines the level of risk of contracting opportunistic diseases by the affected person. This means that without CD4 testing machines, very few people living with HIV/Aids would get useful advice or guidance from the medics on how to properly manage their health conditions. Taking their blood samples to regional hospitals is definitely too expensive for most of them.
The CD4 test is itself expensive. Therefore carrying it out in a distant hospital compounds the problem. The result is that most of them will have their anti-retroviral treatment disrupted due to uninformed prescription for lack of competent information. This usually breeds fatal consequences for the HIV carrying person. The government should seriously look into this problem. It's not Hoima alone. The problem is countrywide. Many people living with HIV/Aids in the country do not have access to CD4 testing machines.
The Director General of Health Services, Dr Sam Zaramba, said regional hospitals have been equipped with the machines and that patients should utilise them. It's good to see that the government is trying hard to fight HIV/Aids and is installing such machines. But at regional level, given the poverty of our people especially in rural areas, it would leave most HIV-positive people unable to reach a regional hospital for service. Some people don't even have transport to take them for their ARV treatment at health centres. Whereas the government has done well to equip regional hospitals with the machines, this effort should be reinforced by taking similar equipment to local health centres to enable easy access to these testing kits.
Dr Zaramba said the government is in the process of equipping all its health centres with CD4 count testing machines. But he does not say how far the efforts have gone. That process should be expedited. It may require cutting on other areas of the national budget. That's okay as long as it's geared towards saving, or at least prolonging our people's lives.
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