UNAIDS Director in Gabon Françoise Ndayishimiye has revealed that the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is ready to supply ARVs to Gabon.
Gabon is currently facing a shortage of the vital drugs for people living with HIV.
The transaction will be carried out by the World Health Organization (WHO), which will procure and transport the drugs to Gabon as soon as possible, Ndayishimiye said.
On Monday, 4 March 2019, in an interview with the daily L’Union, the Director of the programme to combat sexually transmitted infections, Dr Raïssa Okouyi Ndong, confirmed the scarcity of ARVs in the country’s Outpatient Transmission Centres (CTA).
According to Ndong, nearly 20,000 people are currently on antiretroviral treatment out of more than 52,000 reported AIDS cases.
Faced with this shortage, the Prime Minister called the Ministers of Health, Budget and Economy to find out the reasons for the ARV shortage.
Gabon is the only country in the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) that does not receive financial support from the Global Fund to fight AIDS to obtain medicines against this pandemic.
In 2018, it budgeted CFA4 billion for the purchase of antiretrovirals, but spent only CFA950 million.
– APA
