Prices of retroviral drugs must be uniform

Accra, May 2, GNA - Naa Ashley Vanderpuje, Resident Physician of the International Health Care Centre (IHCC) on Friday said the price for Anti Retroviral Therapy (ART) should be the same across board in public, private or mission hospitals. She said variations in prices should be in the consultations and laboratory investigations and not in the cost of drugs. Speaking at media training on HIV/AIDS in Accra, Naa Vanderpuye said most clinics have standard registration, consultation and laboratory prices which made the total cost for PLWHAs extremely high considering that infected persons mostly had other accompanying problems making it difficult to afford high cost of drugs

Naa Vanderpuje said when the ART programme started in the country government realized the need to include private facilities which came together under the name rainbow Network to help scale up ART Treatment. She contended that initially some of the clinics with high earning clients were giving the ART at 30 dollars, a reduction from the Ghc300 that it was earlier sold for and that there was the need for uniformity for all class of people. She said stigmatization and discrimination stemmed from traditional beliefs of a form of disgrace or discredit for the patients with AIDS but those practices came from ignorance, false interpretation and being misled with pictures of patients and the use of wrong terminologies.

Some PLWHAs shared their experiences and called on the public not to treat them with disdain but to show them love; care and support to enable them live longer. They contended that their condemnation by the public towards them rather than the disease sent them to the graves earlier.