More Women Than Men On ARVs

THATO CHWAANE
Staff Writer | Monday August 6, 2007 00:00

 

Machao was speaking at a Botswana Bureau of Standards (BOBS) 'Wellness Day' occasion last week.
Machao said that men come late to the health facilities and they only go when things are unbearable.

 
He said that often men were fearful that they might have HIV but did not want to know.  Machao said that the numbers of patients who have died before being started on treatment are 7,396. He said that government continues to bear the brunt of costs. In 2005, a person on first line drugs cost P4, 000 a year.
Second line drugs cost P7, 000 per person a year and third line drugs cost P9, 000 per person per year for the government.

 
He said government could increase salaries with the money.
He said that after the third line there was nothing that could be done.
He said going from one line to another in therapy means taking more drugs, more complications and more side effects.

 
He said that once one is enrolled, people on ARVs have to have regular CD4 and viral load tests to measure whether the treatment is effective.
He said regular check-ups, pill counts and adherence counselling are all used to measure adherence.

 
People on ARV therapy should be assisted to adhere to the medication, he advised. 
Machao emphasised that ARV therapy was not a cure for HIV/AIDS.
'Testing for HIV is very important and we must ensure that we encourage others to test too,' he said.