Gabon has been facing a shortage of antiretrovirals (ARVs) for several months, it is for this reason that the Minister of Health Guy Patrick Obiang Ndong, recently received the heads of associations of people living with HIV (PLHIV) .
To circumvent this difficulty, the Minister of Health of Gabon recommends that people living with HIV take Bactrim 960 mg. “To deal with this situation and avoid the occurrence of certain opportunistic diseases in patients, the Minister invited PLHIV in accordance with the therapeutic protocol to continue treatment with Bactrim 960 mg in the absence of the missing molecules in order to fight against the drop in CD4 (one of the cells of the immune system Editor’s note) while reassuring them that the stocks of ARVs will be supplied in the very next few days”, indicates the press release from the Ministry of Health.
The Minister of Health also condemns the poor management of ARVs in certain outpatient treatment centers (CTA) in Libreville and the hinterland. Mismanagement that results in ARVs expiring and being destroyed. This creates a shortfall in the care of PLHIV.
As recently as last September, people living with HIV had held a protest movement to denounce the distribution of expired ARVs to patients. A state of affairs which has lasted since July 2021 and which was harmful to their health.
For the Director of AIDS Prevention Amissa Briana Bongo Ondimba, Gabon had 46,000 people living with HIV at the end of 2020, with a total of 24,208 patients on ARVs, or 52%.
