Director General of Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices, Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) Engko Sosialine Magdalene, Apt, M.Bio Med said the government guarantees the availability of antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). “The government is still trying to maintain the availability of ARVs so that the continuity of ARV use is not interrupted,” said Director General Engko at the Ministry of Health building, Friday (18/1).
The number of HIV/AIDS patients as of October 2018 is 305 thousand patients, 107 thousand of whom are taking medication. The government guarantees the availability of ARV drugs, even the availability has been calculated until the growth of patients per month is around 1-3 percent.
Director General Engko said that the Ministry of Health has a system to monitor the availability of ARVs in all provinces. Based on the monitoring results, as of January 2019 there were no ARV vacancies in the regions.
The guarantee of ARV availability arose due to concerns from PLWHA regarding the availability of these drugs. The concern is suspected to be a shortage of ARV drugs of the Fixed Dose Combination type.
“This (concern) may start from one of the drugs. So there are several ARV drugs, approximately 10 items, some are removable types, meaning that they are efficacious, there are combinations that we call fixed dose combinations,” he said.
Director General Engko emphasized that the Ministry of Health has made efforts to maintain the availability of ARVs. In December 2018, the Ministry of Health had received a grant donation from the Global Fund of 222 thousand bottles of ARVs of the fixed dose combination type, each bottle containing 30 tablets.
“222 thousand bottles are enough to meet the needs of the next 5 to 6 months,” said Director General Engko. Then for the next, the Ministry of Health has prepared an ARV stock of 564 thousand bottles until the end of 2019. So every year the government provides and allocates a budget to buy or provide ARVs.
In principle, the Ministry of Health continues to maintain the availability of ARV drugs, so that PLWHA will not drop out.
“Patients should not panic, do not worry because the availability of ARV drugs is maintained by the government,” said Director General Engko.
This news was broadcast by the Bureau of Communication and Public Services, Ministry of Health. For further information, please contact Halo Kemkes via hotline number 1500-567, SMS 081281562620, facsimile (021) 5223002, 52921669, and email address [email protected]. (D2) source