Ugandan Children to Get Free AIDS Drugs

Ugandan children to get free AIDS drugs

KAMPALA, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) — All children in Uganda between the age of two and 15 years living with HIV/AIDS are to start getting free antiretroviral (ARV) drugs.

Prof. Peter Mugyenyi, a senior health official at the Joint Clinical Research Center (JCRC), quoted by state owned New Vision on Monday, said the center is now able to provide the drugs to all the HIV positive children across the country.

“I am glad to announce that through funding from the Bill Clinton Foundation, JCRC will now be in position to give free ARVs to all Ugandan children aged between two and 15 years. All they have to do is to come to any of our 43 centers scattered across the country,” Mugyenyi said.

The Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative (CHAI) strived to make treatment for HIV/AIDS more affordable and to implement large- scale integrated care, treatment, and prevention programs.

Ministry of Health statistics indicated that currently 86,000 HIV/ AIDS patients in Uganda have gained access to ARVs, of which 6, 800 are children below 15 years.

A total of 160,000 patients are in need of the drugs.

According to statistics from the 2006 Report on the global AIDS epidemic, a total of one million Ugandans were living with the deadly virus in 2005 and 110,000 of them were children below the age of 14 years.

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