Millions Of ARV Doses Detained, HIV Patients In Kenya Threatened

Illustration of being hospitalized (Photo: Freepik/EyeEm)

JAKARTA - A health clinic in Nairobi, Kenya, can now only supply anti-retroviral drugs (ARV) for one month due to freezing foreign aid from the United States government. The Donald Trump administration is known to cut 80 percent of foreign aid distributed through USAID.

Meanwhile, millions of doses of drugs that can save lives are actually stuck in warehouses in the suburbs. These drugs cannot be accessed by patients in need.

One of the HIV patients, Alice Okwirry, felt the direct impact of this policy. Clinics that provide drugs are only half an hour from the warehouse, but for her, the distance feels like a separating ocean. Without US assistance, the distribution of drugs from warehouses to health facilities in Kenya has stalled. As a result, the stock of several types of drugs is running low.

The freeze of aid for 90 days, which Trump ordered after taking office on January 20, caused major disruptions in the global supply chain for HIV drugs and other diseases. In fact, the distribution of drugs that have arrived in Kenya has also stalled.

"I feel like seeing death get closer," said Okwigry (50), who was diagnosed with HIV in 2008. She has a daughter named Chichi (15), who is also HIV positive, quoted from the Reuters page.

In the past, Okwirry was able to get an ARV for six months at a time. Now, he only gets one month's supply.

"I asked Chichi, 'What if we run out of medicine later?', Chichi replied, 'Mother, I will always believe you'," he said.

Last month, the US State Department issued an exemption for funding HIV drugs from a policy of freezing aid. However, the USAID payment system in Kenya is still paralyzed due to budget cuts, so contractors running this program cannot be paid.

"The program implementers are wondering 'how can I continue my activities if I don't get paid?'" said Macach Knowles-Coursin, former deputy communications chief of USAID for East Africa, who stepped down on February 3 as a form of protest.

"This exception is actually limited to paper." he added.