Malawi government attacked

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Malawi Hospitals

Malawians living with HIV from Mzimba have threatened to deal with the President Peter Mutharika led government for subjecting them to a variety of problems including the recently reported shortage of ARVs across the district.

ARVs
ARVs: Are becoming scarce.

They sounded the warning through Malawi24 recently at Tiwovwilane Hall where they were discussing on how best they can show their anger to the current government which they said is the “worst” in the history of multi-party democracy in the country.

One of them, Tiyezge Jere, revealed that they already planned some demonstrations to present their petition to government but they were blocked by police authorities for not following proper procedures.

“They said we didn’t follow procedures but we are not stopping here. We will make sure we show this irresponsible government that as HIV positive citizens, we are not happy to be subjected to such problems like of ARVs,” said Jere.

Malawi24’s recent findings showed that there was erratic availability of ARVs in health centres across the district.

Health authorities were telling patients to pray hard so that government must speed up the process of supplying the drugs to the facilities.

Many patients became worried with the situation because they were afraid of being prone to opportunistic diseases which usually are said to come whenever one skips a day without taking the ARVs.

A visit to some health centres by this publication on Monday found that there were no ARVs.

ekwendeni hospital
Hospitals having no ARVs.

Medics repeatedly told our reporter that in such situations patients can only access the drugs at the district hospital or else at Mzuzu central hospital.

“We usually find it difficult to supply such drugs here but still we advise our patients to dig deeper in their pockets to access the same at our main hospital or in Mzuzu,” said one medic.

Meanwhile tensions are still high among the youths living with HIV in the district who have emphasised that they will make sure their voices are heard.

Efforts to speak to publicist in the ministry of health Adrian Chikumbe for his comment on the matter proved futile.