East African nations to negotiate for ARVs as a bloc

The three-member East African Community (EAC) has agreed to negotiate as a bloc for anti-HIV/AIDS drugs to be produced locally so as to reduce the cost forpoverty-stricken locals.

The agreement was reached during a meeting in Arusha among Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, all the EAC members since the bloc wasestablished in 1967, local newspaper Daily News reported on Friday.

The three EAC countries are to negotiate with licensed anti-retroviral (ARVs) drug manufacturers for local production of generic drugs for distribution in the region. ARVs are taken now as a life-prolonging drug for full-blown AIDS sufferers.

Yet due to the high price of anti-HIV/AIDS drugs, only one out of 10 people in the region living with HIV/AIDS can afford them.

In Tanzania, the HIV/AIDS prevalence rate now stands at 10 percent with 140,000 sufferers die from the disease annually, out of about 2.2 million people living with the virus.

The prevalence rate in Kenya is estimated at 7 percent while inUganda the rate is 6.2 percent, according to available statistics.

The Tanzanian authorities have designed a four-year national care and treatment plan that is expected to provide HIV/AIDS sufferers with free-of-charge ARVs. The first batch of HIV/AIDS sufferers in the country is to get free ARVs in October according to the plan.

Tanzania is among the poorest countries in the world. Most people in the country now live with less than a US dollar each daywhereas a monthly dose of anti-HIV/AIDS drugs costs more than 30 dollars.

Source: Xinhua