By Francis Tim Mbom
The high cost of doing an HIV/AIDS test, which still hovers between FCFA 4,500 and 5,000 seems to be scaring patients away.
This is contrary to a recent announcement by the Minister of Public Health, Olanguena Awono, that Government had reduced the cost of the test in both public and private health centres to FCFA 500 for adults and free for expectant mothers, tuberculosis patients and other terminally ill people, under-fifteens and students.
The Director of the Family Health Care Foundation Clinic in Limbe, Dr. Peter Louis Ndifor, told The Post that an HIV test costs between FCFA 4,500 to 5,000."An HIV test here, that is the rapid HIV test, costs between FCFA 4,500 to FCFA 5, 000," Dr. Ndifor said.
As to why the cost was still that high despite Government's decision to reduce it to FCFA 500, Ndifor said the Government made the announcement without any concomitant action to have the supplies of reagents to private health establishments subsidised or reduced.
Besides, he said, Government decisions are normally followed by texts of application which they were yet to receive.But Dr. Wilfred Akam of the HIV Testing and Counselling Centre at the Limbe Provincial Hospital said he was convinced that by the end of February, the Ministerial decision would be effectively implemented in the Southwest Province.
At the level of the Provincial Hospital, he said, pregnant mothers were already having the test free following the Minister's decision. He said initially they used to charge them FCFA 1000.
"Certainly, it is already being implemented but I am not yet sure about it in the entire public," he said.Akam, however, acknowledged that there are going to be some delays before hospitals effectively start dropping their costs.
"There is certainly going to be a small delay because at the time that Government came up with this measure, people still had old stocks of reagents which they might have bought at higher costs," he said, adding that they expect medics to start implementing as soon as they get new stocks.
With the current high prevalence rate HIV/AIDS infection in the country put at 5.5 percent, the Government is aiming at having more people go for the test so that the fight to curtail the spread of the virus from infected people to uninfected ones can better be done.
Asked if more people turned up for tests following the Government announcement, Dr. Akam answered in the affirmative.He said in the past when Government offered free screening weeks, more people came out voluntarily to be screened.
"This indicates that though we may be saying that the high cost is not a major obstacle, it is an obstacle to a good number of persons," Akam said."When you reduce the cost of a test, be it HIV or any other, the truth is that many more people will come for that test," he added.
Decentralise Testing Centres
Even though Government wants to spur more people to go for the HIV/AIDS test, Dr. Ndifor is urging it to decentralise the testing and counselling centres in order to reach the population in remote areas.
"If the testing is much more decentralised to every health centre where we have laboratory technicians who could be trained to carry it out, then it would significantly improve the situation."
That notwithstanding, Ndifor says it is very important for people to do the test and be fully aware of their status than wait for the cost to be dropped because it might be too late.
"There are some people who had the financial means but have died because they refused to do the test and to take the necessary precautions to protect themselves," he said.
Ndifor adds that though there is still no cure for HIV/AIDS, it is equally important for people to do the test so that they can be followed up to know when exactly they can be placed on treatment.
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