The budget cuts may hinder thousands of HIV/AIDS patients from access to the key medication they received to prolong their lives, an official has warned.

Kihumuro Apuuli, director general of the Uganda AIDS Commission (UAC), quoted by the state-owned New Vision daily on Friday, said the budget cuts in the proposed budget framework for 2006/07 were likely to affect patients' access to anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs), currently used by 75,000 patients.

He said of the 75,000 patients, 47,000 received ARVs with the assistance of donor funding from various organizations and projects, noting a number of the projects that have been supplementing the ministry's funding were winding up their operations, thus requiring the government to fill the gap.

Uganda had over the years failed to increase its annual healthcare budget to 15 percent as agreed by the African heads of state in Abuja, Nigeria, five years ago.

"The budget framework has reduced money for the health sector. We are likely to get little funds for HIV/AIDS activities and there is no money for drugs," he said.

During a recent meeting with Ministry of Finance officials, he was informed that the budget cuts were due to the current energy crisis in the east African country.

Kihumuro's fears come at a time when recent findings indicated that more Ugandans were getting infected with HIV at a rate of 130, 000 annually.

"The number of people in need of ARVs is going to double. Where shall we find resources to help them?" he asked.

Last week, the UAC said that it requires 1.2 billion U.S. dollars annually to accelerate the search for AIDS vaccine but only 650 million dollars was in place.

The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria last year temporarily suspended its five grants to Uganda citing mismanagement.

The organization made the decision after an investigation of one of the grants by PricewaterhouseCoopers of "serious mismanagement" by the Project Management Unit in the Ministry of Health that was established to control the grants.

HIV/AIDS has killed more than 25 million people since it was first recognized in 1981, making it one of the greatest public health and economic challenges to mankind.

According to the Ministry of Health, majority of those who are affected with the disease are within the bracket of 15-to-40 years old, where the majority of the labor force comes from.

The 2005 Uganda AIDS Indicator Survey conducted by the Ministry of Health shows that the HIV prevalence rate has stagnated at about 6.5 percent for the last three years, causing worry among experts.

Uganda is hailed internationally for bringing down its HIV prevalence rate from 18 percent in the early 1990s to 6.5 percent in 2005.

Source: Xinhua