The government’s failure to solve the challenges the Ghana Health Service (GHS) confronts in getting antiretroviral medications cleared at the port could lead to a worsening of HIV patients’ situations.
The high taxes on pharmaceuticals at the port make it impossible for the service to purchase them because of the restricted resources, according to Dr. Stephen Ayisi Addo, Programs Manager for the National AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases at the GHS.
Dr. Addo claimed that the prolonged wait can hurt their patients and make their diseases worse in an interview with JoyNews on The Pulse on February 14.
“There has been a significant escalation in the pricing for clearing. So what is even allocated in our budget is lower than what is required now for the clearing,” he said.
He clarified that policies ensuring a steady supply must be implemented since the government needs to recognize that these medications preserve human life.
“We need to first of all agree that this is life-saving. It is preventing something. If we lift our foot off the pedal, what will happen is we are building a reservoir of HIV drug resistance streams because now we don’t have the medication.
“People don’t take it. The virus multiplies, and we have mutated streams. That will be more difficult to treat, and so we don’t want a second epidemic. The country must agree that it is important, and we need to prioritize it,” he said.
He added that the GHS is currently in talks with the Ministry of Finance to obtain a tax waiver so that it can purchase medications at a reduced cost.
