Pakistan gives free medicine to HIV/AIDS patients
by Ashfaq Yusufzai, September 12, 2011
PESHAWAR – The government has started free delivery of medicines to the homes of HIV/AIDS patients.
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is financing the programme, Dr. Sajjad Ahmad, manager of the National AIDS Control Programme, said.
“About 500 patients registered with anti-retroviral (ARV) therapy centres in the province (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) would receive free drugs at their home addresses,” he said. About 3,000 patients registered at the 13 ARV centres in the country would be beneficiaries of the new programme, which the government launched the request of the Association of People Living with HIV/AIDS (APLWA).
The decision is meant to spare patients the tiring journey to ARV centres often far from home, Sajid said.
Apart from medicines, every patient will receive Rs. 13,000 (US $149) annually, to help meet daily expenses, he added.
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