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HIV/AIDS patients in Gorontalo still face poor access to ARV therapy
Voices of hope: HIV/AIDS activists strike a pose on Monday after an event to celebrate World AIDS Day 2014 in Gorontalo City
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Voices of hope: HIV/AIDS activists strike a pose on Monday after an event to celebrate World AIDS Day 2014 in Gorontalo City. They called for greater efforts to ensure adequate access to antiretroviral therapy for people living with HIV/AIDS. The Gorontalo chapter of the AIDS Prevention Commission (KPA) stated that HIV/AIDS positive people in the province still faced difficulties in accessing the treatment, which is needed to curb the spread of the HIV virus. (JP/Syamsul Huda M. Suhari) (KPA) stated that HIV)
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span class="inline inline-left">Voices of hope: HIV/AIDS activists strike a pose on Monday after an event to celebrate World AIDS Day 2014 in Gorontalo City. They called for greater efforts to ensure adequate access to antiretroviral therapy for people living with HIV/AIDS. The Gorontalo chapter of the AIDS Prevention Commission (KPA) stated that HIV/AIDS positive people in the province still faced difficulties in accessing the treatment, which is needed to curb the spread of the HIV virus. (JP/Syamsul Huda M. Suhari)
People living with HIV/AIDS (ODHA) in Gorontalo are still facing difficulties in accessing antiretroviral (ARV) treatment needed to curb the spread of the HIV virus, an activist has said.
Gorontalo-chapter National AIDS Commission (KPA) secretary Irwansyah said that of a number of private and public hospitals in regencies and municipalities across the province, only Aloei Saboe Regional General Hospital (RSUD) in Gorontalo City provided the ARV therapy.
'The HIV/AIDS patients are spread across five regencies and one municipality in Gorontalo, and some of them are living in remote areas, such as Pohuwato regency on the border of Gorontalo and Central Sulawesi, which is quite far from Gorontalo City. HIV/AIDS patients in Pohuwato need to travel more than 200 kilometers to get ARV,' said Irwansyah on Monday.
He was speaking on the sidelines of an event to celebrate the World AIDS Day at Likada Square in Kabila, Bone Bolango regency, on Monday.
Irwansyah said it was only the HIV/AIDS patients that could access the ARV medication at RSUD Aloei Sabe, with close assistance from specially-assigned doctors. He said KPA Gorontalo was trying very hard to make ARV treatments for ODHA available in every hospital.
'For a region with quite a small population, reaching only one million people, the number of HIV/AIDS cases in Gorontalo is quite high. As of November, 174 HIV/AIDS cases have been identified in the province,' he said.
Under such conditions, Irwansyah said he was pessimistic that Gorontalo would be able to meet the 2015 Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) indicators, one of which is zero new infections of HIV/AIDS.
'HIV/AIDS infections hitting Gorontalo could be the tip of the iceberg,' said Irwansyah.
In 2013, KPA recorded 35 new HIV/AIDS cases and 30 new infections have been recorded this year.
'In 2011, the Health Ministry estimated that the number of HIV/AIDS cases in Gorontalo reached 500 and it is predicted that the figure could increase to 700 cases in 2014. We've only found 174 cases so far, however,' said Irwansyah. (ebf)(++++)
