Health and Child Welfare Principal Director for Curative Services Christopher Tapfumaneyi yesterday told the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health that over 66 000 HIV positive patients currently on anti-retroviral treatment in the country may not access the life-prolonging drugs if funding was not made available.
He said donor fatigue had hit the majority of the ministry’s partners who have supported the roll-out of the essential medication.
“About 66 000 people may not have adequate medication although they were on treatment. We really need funding because by the end of the year, these patients will not have medicines,” he said.
He said over the past years, the increasing numbers of people requiring ARV treatment has put a huge strain on the ministry’s finances and they have been forced to revise downwards the allocation of drugs to individuals in need.
Tapfumaneyi said no local firm had the capacity to manufacture the more effective Tenofovir drug that has been recommended by the World Health Organisation.
Zimbabwe started phasing out the combination anti-retroviral treatment (ARV) Stavudine, Lamivudine and Nevirapine as its first-line option for the national programme, replacing it with the less toxic Tenofovir and Zidovudine-based regimens.
