Many HIV positive patients in the country cannot have their CD4 count checked as there are still no analyser machine reagents in the country’s hospitals.
This is because government lacaks E7 million to purchase them, it has since been gathered.Reagents are chemicals used to process the blood so that the machines can count the CD4 cells. This has left many HIV/AIDS patients frustrated as they do not know how healthy they are in terms of their CD4 count.
Since early December 2011, knowing one’s CD4 count has only been available for patients who can afford the E100 to E150 charged by private laboratories.
This publication paid a visit to Lamvelase Health Centre, where patients were told to go to Lancet or the Summerplace building, which are private laboratories, to have their CD4 counts checked.
“I have travelled all the way from kaPhunga to have my CD4 count checked, only to find that the machines are faulty. To make matters worse, I do not even have the money to go to the private clinics where I could get help,” one of the patients, Patience* said.
Mehluli* said he could not afford going to Lancet and would go back home.
He said he had not been able to check his CD4 count for the past three months.
“If I cannot afford busfare from Siphofaneni to Manzini, how much more the costs for private laboratories? This has become difficult for me. The government should come to our rescue on this matter, it is serious,” Mehluli said.
The Medical Director of Lamvelase Health Centre, Dr Nduduzo Dube, said about 98 per cent of their patients could not even afford bus fare to go back to the hospital. He said the situation was bad and he did not know when it would improve.
“In the last three months we effectively have had CD4 counts done for only one month, which is mid-November to early December. Due to the lack of reagents, this compromises the quality of care since we have to treat patients blindly,” Dr Dube said.
He also said, for the patients who could afford to pay, the hospital sent them directly to private laboratories where they had to pay at least E100, but most of them did not go there.
Swanepha flooded with calls
The Director of the Swaziland Network of People Living with HIV and AIDS (SWANEPHA), Thembi Nkambule, said her organisation was flooded with complaints about the non-availability of CD4 count machine reagents.
“A person living with the virus has to be monitored constantly through his or her CD4 count on a daily basis. If the machines are faulty then that compromises the health of the patient. This renders the therapy somewhat incomplete because the patient would be taking ARVs without knowing what their CD4 count is,” she said.Nkambule also said people living with the virus needed the best treatment to live the healthiest life possible. She said the organisation hoped the lack of reagents would be solved as soon as possible to avoid more problems.
Govt is doing its best, says Health minister Xaba
The Minister of Health, Benedict Xaba, said patients are still getting treatment despite the problem.
The lack of CD4 count machine reagents is said to have affected all the hospitals in the country for the past three months. “The ministry is still awaiting the release of funds from the Ministry of Finance. We need E7 million to purchase the CD4 machine reagents, which is a lot of money. This, however, does not mean that patients are not getting any treatment; there are clinical stages and guidelines that are used. The government is doing its best to make sure that HIV-positive people get the best treatment possible,” the minister said.
Minister Xaba said government was challenged by the lack of funds; however it had promised that the Ministry of Health would get the money soon.
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