A new glimpse of hope has been introduced to patients of HIV/AIDS; as a new drug that makes them live longer is about to be released in the country-Nigeria.
UNITAID is to roll out a generic version of the latest AIDS drug
that can improve and prolong the lives of tens of thousands of people
who suffer severe side effects and resistance to other treatments in
Nigeria.
UNITAID which is a global health initiative, said a generic of
Dolutegravir (DTG), first approved in the U.S. in 2013, is being given
to 20,000 patients in Kenya before being rolled out in Nigeria and
Uganda later in the year.
DTG is the drug of choice for people with HIV in high-income
countries who have never taken anti retro-viral therapy before and for
those who have developed resistance to other treatment.
Kenya is the first African country to start using the DTG.
“I had constant nightmares and no appetite,” said Nairobi resident Doughtiest Ogutu, who started taking the drug this year because of her resistance to other treatments.
“My appetite has come back. My body is working well with it.”
Ogutu, who has been living with HIV for 15 years, said her viral
load, the amount of HIV in her blood, has fallen tenfold from 450,000 to
40,000 since she started on DTG.
Sub-Saharan Africa has been at the epicenter of the HIV epidemic
for decades and home to nearly three quarters of all people with HIV and
AIDS.
UNTAIDS aims for 90 per cent of people diagnosed with HIV to
receive anti retro-viral treatment by 2020. The brand name version of
DTG is Tivicay, produced by ViiV Healthcare, which is majority-owned by
GlaxoSmithKline.
About 15 per cent of HIV patients are resistant, which means the
medicines do not work on them, said Sylvia Ojoo, Kenya country director
for the University of Maryland School of Medicine, who is monitoring the
introduction of DTG.
UNITAID works to bring medicines to market quickly and to reduce
manufacturing costs by allowing generic companies to access patents for a
small royalty and produce them cheaply for the developing world.
Kenya with one of the world’s largest HIV positive populations, has
made great strides in addressing HIV in its public medical facilities.
“The health systems we have in place allow for rapid deployment,” said Ojoo.
“It makes it relatively easy to introduce new interventions.”
About 1.5 million Kenyans are HIV positive, with more than
two-thirds on treatment, said Martin Sirengo, head of Kenya’s National
AIDS and STI Control Program. The number of new infections in Kenya has
almost halved over the last decade to 80,000 a year, he said, thanks to
increased testing, treatment and awareness.
-Reuters/NAN reports
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