- •The current shortage has been caused by a tax row between Kenya and Usaid, which has eschewed Kemsa and sent ARVs and test kits to Kenya through a private company US company
- •Usaid also wants to establish a parallel drug distribution system in Kenya, through Chemonics, instead of Kemsa
People living with HIV will have to wait longer before they can resume getting drugs to last them three months or more.
The Ministry of Health said it has directed Kenya Medical Supplies Authority to procure 1.4 million packs of ARVs which is enough drugs to last three months for each person.
But this could take long.
The country is currently going through a distressing shortage of ARVs and most health facilities have enough drugs to last only one month.
Most facilities have also run out of test kits for HIV including Dried Blood Spots (DBS) bundles, used to test for the virus in babies.
The shortage particularly affects dolutegravir, the most powerful drug which Kenya adopted in 2019.
Health PS Susan Mochache said ARV clinics should give clients a month's worth of ARVs until the situation normalises where patients can access three to six months' dosage.
She said they should not get less than a month's dosage or repackage ARVs, which is already happening.
“As a mitigation measure, the Ministry of Health requested Kemsa to expedite deliveries of 1,320,000 packs of 90-day drugs of the first line ARV procured by Global Fund and counterpart funding 93,000 90-day packs,” Mochache said.
The counterpart funding is financing by the Kenyan government.
“The ministry has provided additional funds to Kemsa to bridge the gaps by procuring additional ARVs with the procurement process ongoing,” Mochache said in a letter to the Kenya Country Coordinating Mechanism, the team that oversees Global Fund money in Kenya.
The National Empowerment Network of People Living with HIV and Aids in Kenya, a civil society lobby, praised the move to buy more drugs.
“This is a good move, the only concern is that it will take long to bring the drugs down and that means PLWHIV will be frequenting and crowding facilities during the third wave of Covid-19,” Nephak boss Nelson Otuoma told the Star.
The current shortage has been caused by a tax row between Kenya and Usaid, which has eschewed Kemsa and sent ARVs and test kits to Kenya through a private US company, Chemonics International.
As a result, a Sh1.1 billion consignment has been lying at the port since January 18 after being handed a Sh90 million tax bill.
Some of the commodities being held include HIV testing, treatment and prevention commodities such as ARVs, laboratory reagents as well as TB diagnostic and prevention medications.
Usaid also wants to establish its own, parallel drug distribution system in Kenya through Chemonics, instead of using Kemsa.
The Kenyan government and civil society are against this.
In 2018, Chemonics, the biggest Usaid contractor in history, was under pressure from US lawmakers and watchdog groups for chronic delays where it operates.
However, Nephak urged the government to clear the drugs at the port, to end the shortage immediately.
The lobby urged Usaid to use Kemsa to distribute the drugs to health facilities.
"We need to strengthen public distribution systems instead of establishing a parallel system," Otuoma said.
Kenya has about 1.6 million people living with HIV and 1.1 million of them are on the daily ARVs.
-Edited by Sarah Kanyara