HIV/AIDS Prevelence Rate Drops in Cameroon, Committee Says

According to officials of the National Committee for the Fight against AIDS, approximately 3% of the population of Cameroon is affected as against 5.5% in 2005. Committee officials made the revelation last December 1, during commemorations marking International AIDS Day in Yaounde. The National Committee also revealed that they started in 2005 when the national prevalence  rate stood at 5.5% and the latest demographic survey indicated a prevalence rate of 4.3% in 2011. Barely three years after, the prevalence rate is about 3%. Even though they talked of a good margin, Committee members also added that they are still waiting for a national survey to confirm the rate. Dr. Claus Essomba, regional coordinator of the National Committee for the Fight against AIDS for the Littoral is quoted to have said that it is the survey that will give the exact figure (rate). “ Today we have triple therapy, that is to say, an increase of three drugs, usually the most effective than each other”. It is alleged that for the past years, more than 5 billion CFA Francs has been spent enabled the affect have anti-retro- viral drugs and that the drugs have been stocked that could get up to April 2015. “Our patients will not have a problem of anti-retro-viral”, Reassure the doctor.

However, it has been reported that the high cost of tests, such as viral load and frequent shortages of anti-retro-viral drugs in some areas has been some of the major predicaments. The National Committee for the Fight against AIDS has promised to make necessary arrangements so that all the subsidies from the Ministry of Health is made available to the beneficiaries within time record. Since in Cameroon it is better done on papers and speeches, it is hoped that the measures are respected to the later so that lives could be rescued. A suivre

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