News

Ministry allays fear of ARVs shortage

arvs

Health PS Peter Tum said that delayed supplies of ARVs will not affect the delivery of the drugs. FILE PHOTO | NMG

The Health ministry Monday issued an assurance over the availability of HIV drugs following a supply hitch that has also affected testing kits.

Health PS Peter Tum said that delayed supplies of ARVs will not affect the delivery of the drugs.

Dr Tum said in a statement that the delay of 540,730 packs of the ARV drugs had been resolved and the supplier was committed to completing deliveries by end of September. About 80,000 HIV testing kits had also been delayed.

“There is no current or impending shortage of ARVs as we still have 15 months’ stock. For this particular consignment of ARVs we have firm assurance that the supplier will complete all deliveries by September 30,” said Dr Tum.

He said the delay in supplies was caused by global supply constraint of raw materials.

About 1.5 million Kenyans are HIV positive, with more than two-thirds on treatment.

The number of new infections has almost halved over the last decade to 80,000 a year, thanks to increased testing, treatment and awareness campaigns.

On the testing kits, Dr Tum said 80,000 were wrongly labelled.

He said the supplier labelled them as “USAid not for resale” instead of “GOK-MOH not for sale”.

“The supplier took a long time to send a team to the country to correct the error,” Dr Tum added.

He said that correction had been done and payments were being processed.

ALSO READ: WORLD AIDS DAY: ARV defaulters slow down battle against the spread of Aids