A Grahamstown centre which takes care of people living with HIV and Aids has expressed relief at the move by the national department of health to consolidate antiretroviral treatment into one tablet.
Director of the Raphael Centre Jabu van Niekerk said they were pleased with the news. "We welcome the development."
A Grahamstown centre which takes care of people living with HIV and Aids has expressed relief at the move by the national department of health to consolidate antiretroviral treatment into one tablet.
Director of the Raphael Centre Jabu van Niekerk said they were pleased with the news. "We welcome the development."
We think it will make it easier for patients to take one pill instead of three," said Van Niekerk.
She said patients were also pleased with the news.
"Some find it difficult to take many pills daily. To take one pill will simplify things for them, We also think there is going to be adherence, now that there will be one pill," she said.
Provincial Health spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo told Grocott's Mail yesterday that the programme to introduce the Fixed Dose Combination started in the Eastern Cape yesterday.
"It is starting today. Breastfeeding mothers, pregnant mothers and new patients will be prioritised," said Kupelo.
The Fixed Dose Combination (FDC) ARV is a consolidated treatment of two or more drugs. Minister of Health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, announced last year that FDC antiretroviral drugs will be used in the first-line treatment of HIV-positive patients from 1 April this year.
Kupelo said the new treatment will reduce side-effects, and will increase compliance. "Patients will now take one pill once a day. The existing patients will continue with the ARV treatment until September, when they will do a switch-over to one pill, at the discretion of their physician," he said.
Kupelo urged current patients to continue with their treatment until September and take time to learn about the new drug.
He said the unconfirmed reports of patients getting robbed of their ARVs would also be reduced when patients switched over to one tablet a day.
Another milestone that will be reached when the new drug is used it that the department will not have problems of drug shortages.
"Because we were used different pharmaceutical companies, some could not meet the demand of the different drugs. But now only one drug will be used," Kupelo said.
The Raphael Centre is a community initiative providing care and support to people affected by HIV and Aids.
