MP cautions govt on financial risks of new HIV treatment

Dar es Salaam. The Kigamboni Member of Parliament, Dr Faustine Ndungulile, yesterday cautioned the government on the financial implications and health risks of introducing Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) to all HIV-positive individuals regardless of their CD4 count.

Dr Ndungulile, who is also Chairperson of the Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU) Advisory Group on HIV/Aids, said that it was too “risky” to put an HIV-positive patient on life-long ARVs, and then stop in the middle of the course of treatment due to lack of funding for the medications.

However, he was quick to point out that it was a welcome move for the government to introduce the “test and treat all approach” for people living with HIV (PLWH) in Tanzania, especially during this era when there is a global clamour for universal health coverage.

The MP’s remarks come at time when people in Tanzania and the rest of the world are inching closer to marking World Aids Day (on 1st December), but already, many experts are concerned about the ability of the governments and donor agencies in meeting the global targets of taming HIV/Aids under a precarious global financial situation.

Speaking on the sidelines of a symposium on healthcare financing, organized by the Swiss Embassy in Dar es Salaam, the MP, and member of the Social Development and Services Committee told The Citizen the government had good intentions in meeting the WHO best practices but the move would be frustrated by the lack of a stable domestic fund for ARVs.“Studies have shown that introducing patients to ARVs at an early stage can greatly reduce mortality, cut down the rate of new infections and improve the quality of life,’’ he said in an interview and then warned: “But to achieve all these, the government needs a huge domestic financial base. Not relying on donor support.”

A study published last year in the Plos Medicine Journal, titled, ‘The HIV Treatment Gap: Estimates of the Financial Resources Needed versus Available for Scale-Up of Antiretroviral Therapy in 97 Countries from 2015 to 2020’, revealed the funding gaps in many other countries including Tanzania.

Researchers concluded in the study, “….future resource needs for ART scale-up are smaller than stated elsewhere but still significantly threaten the sustainability of the global HIV response without additional resource mobilization from domestic or innovative financing sources or efficiency gains.”

During yesterday’s symposium, partly organized to mark the 50th Anniversary of bilateral relations between Tanzania and Switzerland, the Ambassador of Switzerland to Tanzania, Ms Florence Mattli, said it was time for health stakeholders to ponder: “...where we stand….think differently on how to succeed in providing universal health care to all residents of Tanzania.”