KENYA: ARV programmes slowly recovering from post-election crisis
Thousands of Kenyans who dropped out of HIV treatment programmes in January as a result of the country's post-election violence are gradually returning to clinics and the antiretroviral (ARV) drugs that help prolong their lives.
ELDORET, 28 April 2008 (PlusNews) - Initially more than 90 percent of our patients failed to come for their monthly appointments during which they collect their drugs, but now they are returning slowly," said Cleophas Chesoli, social work manager for the Academic Model for the Prevention and Treatment of HIV (AMPATH), a research institution linked to Moi University in western Kenya's Rift Valley town of Eldoret.
At the height of the crisis, AMPATH placed national announcements in the newspapers and on the radio advising clients on the nearest available health facility where they could get ARVs. AMPATH has 67,000 clients, with an estimated 30,000 on treatment; although it is still unclear how many patients missed their doses, Chesoli is hopeful that the chances of patients developing resistance are low.
"We generally give patients as much as six weeks' worth of medication because many of our patents may not make their monthly consultations due to lack of transport or bus fare, or distance for the nearest centre," he said.
However, many people affected by the violence left their homes so hurriedly they were unable to pack or grab their medication. "My house was burned to the ground with everything in it; I spent two weeks without taking my drugs," said Loyce Wambui, a resident of Nakuru camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the Rift Valley. "Many other people just had to run for their lives and leave all their things behind."
AMPATH has begun to monitor signs of resistance in patients who missed some days of treatment. Chesoli said, however, that it would be months before resistance could be confirmed.
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