Borno State News
Worry As Borno Hospital Runs Out Of Antiretroviral Drugs For HIV Patients
April 6, 2017 – Worry As Borno Hospital Runs Out Of Antiretroviral Drugs For HIV Patients
BOSACA, the Borno Agency for the Control of HIV/AIDS today said the state Specialist Hospital had run out of Anti-retroviral Drugs at its main centre.
Mr Barkindo Saidu, the Executive Secretary of the agency, disclosed this in an interview with NAN in Maiduguri.
Saidu said that as at April 5, there was no drug for HIV patients at the State Specialist Hospital.
“As at yesterday (Wednesday), the Borno specialist hospital went out of drugs; the agency has to borrow drugs from the Umaru Shehu Memorial Hospital to meet up the demand of the patients,” he said.
Saidu said that Opportunist Infections (OI) drug is a lifeline for HIV-positive patients since if they did not take it regularly they could even die of secondary infections or diseases.
He explained that in the early stage, a person living with HIV could contact tuberculosis, malaria, bacterial pneumonia, fever, skin diseases and ulcers, among others, and such medicines were necessary to keep these diseases at bay.
“Septrin tablet, an antibiotic drug, is provided free of cost to persons living with HIV and it helps to ward off bacteria diseases.
“The tablets are being given to people living with AIDS when their CD4 count (number of cells in a cubic millimetre of blood) reaches around 250.
“Tablets help patients fight the infections as they are more vulnerable to infections.
“These are called opportunistic infections (OI) as they easily target the patients due to the weakening of their immune system.
“Several bacterial diseases, such as tuberculosis, pneumonia, septicaemia candidiasis, fever, cytomegalovirus and allergy are commonly found in HIV patients.
“Presently, out of more than 9,000 of our clients, only 15 of them are on second line treatment, the rest are all on first line drugs.
iron bar
April 6, 2017 at 4:21 PM
NOT true..officials responsible to oversee those drugs should be quizzed.may have been carted away, same way they steal foods from idp camps..
Jilo
April 6, 2017 at 10:27 PM
My question for those people carting away drugs supplied to HIV patients is, do you want to be infected with this kind of disease? I don’t understand why people are so heartless and knowingly suffering the affected people for no just reason? The hospital officials must be probed for sudden disappearance of the supplied drugs. This is like painful killing those who are in dire need of that drug. The state government must quickly come in, in order to avert mass mortality.
fifelomo
April 6, 2017 at 11:05 PM
No sane person will cart away with the drugs. Very heartless souls!