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PHM Sierra Leone: TB Drugs not available at health centres in Sierra Leone

People’s Health Movement- Sierra Leone Chapter

PRESS RELEASE
Freetown , 15th June 2011

TB DRUGS NOT AVAILABLE AT HEALTH CENTRES IN SIERRA LEONE – PATIENTS ARE DYING


We, people infected and affected by HIV and Tuberculosis and health workers in the People’s Health Movement- Sierra Leone Chapter , are alarmed by the absolute shortage of supply of TB drugs at health centres in the country for over two months now. Over this period of drug shortage , TB patients who have started treatment have stopped treatment prematurely because health care workers cannot provide the drugs either in intensive or continuation phases . This appalling state of national health care service that exists without explanation is shameful , demonstrating wide cracks in the National Health system that allows vulnerable persons to fall through. In spite of repeated enquiries to get clarification on theshortage of drugs no information seems to come through . We doubt if WHO and Ministry of Health and Sanitation are aware of thisstate of desperation for the common citizens of this country.

For us and our families whose lives are touched by these diseases of HIV and TB, non-availability of drugs for TB is a violation of our right to life and health ; enshrined in the constitution of Sierra Leone (1991). Without TB drugs , HIV patients will suffer agonizing pain and die untimely, even with Anti-retroviral drugs around . Where treatment is prematurely stopped due to lack of drugs , the citizens are bound to suffer the consequence of Multidrug Resistant TB and high mortality in children and productive population who are most hit by the dual epidemics of TB and HIV . Treating TB is important not only for saving the individual lives of patients and their families from eminent suffering and death, but for preventing an upsurge of MDR TB which is costly and complicated to treat and with success rate of only 30% patients on treatment. Drugs for MDR TB are not available in Sierra Leone, considering its prohibitive cost of treatment which ranges between $15,000 – 25,000 per patient.

CSOs Call on Government to Act :

We, people living with HIV and TB held a civil society consultative meeting on TB and HIV from 14 -15 June 2011 in Freetown to review drug availability for TB and HIV, and to develop appropriate advocacy strategy to communicate our suffering and the risks the lack of TB drugs poses to Public Health. We therefore urge the Government of the republic of Sierra Leone and its partners particularly WHO, GFATM, World Bank, Irish AID, UNAIDS, UNICEF, UNDP and UNIFEM to take the shortage of TB drugs as a public health crisis of national emergency and act upon it in this regard .

We are aware of the many priorities of Government of Sierra Leone in meeting the aspirations of the agenda for change. However, providing essential ,life-saving medications such as TB drugs is fundamental to laying the building blocks of poverty reduction in Sierra Leone whose citizens are very poor, 70% of them living on less than $1 a day, illiterate and lacking gainful employment. This state of abject poverty is a recipe for high burden of sputum smear positive TB which is estimated at 14700 cases per annum (WHO estimate of TB burden for Sierra Leone 2010). This form of TB is airborne and easily develops into disease in persons with low immunity. As people living with HIV and TB, we are not in this business by our own self-will , but compelled to respond as activists who are struggling to survive together with our families . If we allow complacency and denial to overtake us because of stigma and shame, the consequence for us as individuals, families and country will be disastrous, fatal and regrettable.

In cognizance of this responsibility to preventapublic health crisis on an epidemic scale, we call upon the Government of the Republic of Sierra Leone and WHO to take the following urgent steps:
1. Convene a partnership meeting of stakeholders to discuss a national response to the crisis of shortage of TB drugs
2. Mobilize financial resources to purchase TB drugs without delay
3. WHO to liaise with National TB Programs in neighboring countries to ‘’loan’’ TB drugs to Sierra Leone urgently. This supply can be airlifted to avoid undue delay

Furthermore we demand :

4. Design a drug distribution system for TB drugs that is District Health Team managed to avoid shortage of drugs at health centres which has occurred repeatedly in the recent past.
5. Engage people living with HIV and TB in the development of National TB Control programme policy and implementation
6. Establish a Public-Private stakeholders Committee to support the effort of NLTCP in policy development and programme implementation such that decisions are participatory and mutually owned by Government, NGOs working in TB and patient support groups.
7. Establish or enforce a national collaborative TB and HIV policy that promotes integration and complementarity of actions on both TB and HIV at policy and implementation levels.
8. Enforce rigorous monitoring of service quality to assure quality and equity. It is sad to note that in the wake of GFATM funding to TB and DOTS supposed to be free of charge , some health care workers continue to solicit informal payments for TB treatment. Thisbarrier must stop.
9. Government of the republic of Sierra Leone and ministry of Health and sanitationmust disclose to the public the annual budget allocation to TB control and to commit minimum of 15% of public expenditure to national health care in compliance with the Abuja Declaration.
10. WHO and international partners encourage the Government of Sierra Leone to increase funding to TB and HIV, if national ownership is tobe assumed overtime. This needed change of approach to international aid management is an evidence of ministerial leadership for national priorities such as TB and HIV. Providing the acting space for Civil Society participation in monitoring of National Health policy is crucial to this end.
As TB and HIV patients, we are forced to stop taking TB drugs. We live with our children and other family members in the community in apprehension. We cough andhave no access toTB drugs . Please we demand urgent action to save precious lives.

End



Gabriel Madiye,
Executive Director
The Shepherd’s Hospice Sierra Leone
433A BaiBurehRoad , Lower Allentown
Freetown
00 232 76 620 661
Email:shepherdshospice@yahoo.co.uk


SulaimanJabati
Executive Secretary
Coalition for Justice and Accountability (COJA)
18 Pandemba Road
Freetown
Mobile :00 232 76 674 408
Scwgnec@yahoo.com


Pastor Albert Freeman
26 Magao Street , Kindeya Town
Bo
Mobile :00 232 76 674 408
Email: inerelasierraleone@yahoo.com


National Coordinator
Philip Kaitongi
HIV/TB support and Advocacy Association
433A BaiBureh Road
Lower Allentown
Freetown
00232 76 419 474
hasasl@gmail.com

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