Around the world, the pandemic has disrupted the supply of antiretroviral drugs, endangering many of the more than 24 million people who take them to keep the HIV virus, which causes AIDS, at bay.
One such case was Sibongile Zulu, a single mother with four children in South Africa. When the clinic she attends ran out of government-funded HIV meds during COVID-19 lockdown, Zulu panicked. A local pharmacy had the medicine costing $ 48, but she didn’t have the money after being laid off from her job during closures to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
Desperate for vital medicines, she called a friend: a nurse at a local agency that helps people with HIV, the Hermana Mura Foundation. Zulu was one of the lucky ones and since April the foundation has provided her with the drugs, bought locally.
In sub-Saharan Africa alone, a study by the Joint United Nations Program on HIV / AIDS (UNAIDS) found that a six-month blockage of antiretroviral therapy could lead to an additional 500,000 AIDS-related deaths.
The changes are particularly worrisome in South Africa, which has 7.7 million people with HIV, the highest number in the world, of which 62% depend on the government’s antiretroviral program, also the largest. Restrictions due to the coronavirus have complicated both the importation of drugs, as well as local production and distribution, according to a UNAIDS report.
Additionally, many HIV patients have stopped going to frequently crowded clinics for fear of exposure to the coronavirus, and others cannot afford transportation to get to clinics.
In June, UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima said countries should urgently plan on how to mitigate the impacts of higher costs and reduced capacity of antiretroviral medicines.
I call on countries and buyers of HIV medicines to act quickly to ensure that all those currently on treatment continue to be in treatment, save lives and stop new HIV infections, Byanyima said.
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