Ethiopian Aids patients 'discontinue ARV treatment'
26/06/2008
A quarter of all Ethiopian Aids patients pull out of their antiretroviral (ARV) drug programmes, one new study has found.
The National HIV/Aids Prevention and Control Office (HAPCO) said that logistical problems with accessing the drugs as well as religious beliefs were primarily to blame for the cessation of treatment.
ARV drugs are widely recognised as the most effective way of prolonging the lives of HIV-positive individuals and - while prohibitively expensive for many countries - global sponsorship has enabled many developing nations to extend access to them.
But according to the new HAPCO study, over 40,000 of Ethiopia's 156,360 Aids patients has now consciously decided to stop taking the drugs - including 1,400 of its 7,000 HIV-positive children.
The challenges associated with regularly travelling from remote rural communities to urban health clinics were identified as the main reasons for the poor retention rate among ARV patients, but other factors were also deemed to play a part.
Poor understanding of the disease coupled with religious and traditional pressures contributed to people's unwillingness to press ahead with the lifesaving therapy, the report argued.
It bemoaned one recent well-intended statement from the head of Ethiopia's Orthodox Church in which sufferers were told to combine ARV drugs with holy water - noting that many took that as an indication that holy water itself offered some degree of protection.
According to the World Health Organisation, over 1.7 million Ethiopians are currently living with HIV/Aids.
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