HIV/Aids patients abandon ARVs due to hunger
By Bill Oketch & Patrick Ebong
People living with HIV/Aids in Otuke District have cried out for help as many of them are abandoning treatment due to hunger.
This is after a 40-year-old man died reportedly due to hunger-related complications in Ogor Sub-county.
The widow Caroline Okello confirms that he had been on anti-retroviral treatment for more than 15 years, but recently abandoned the life-prolonging treatment due to the acute famine being experienced in Lango Sub-region.
Fred Omara Mwoch, the chairman of people living with HIV/Aids in Lango, said the current famine with skyrocketing food prices is affecting his members.
“There are over 50,000 people living with HIV/Aids in Lira District alone, and the most vulnerable are those living in rural areas where they depend on rain-fed agriculture but their crops have withered because of the prolonged dry spell,” he said.
The chairperson for people living with HIV/Aids in Alebtong, Wilson Okar, also says he has been receiving many complaints from their members who say they are unable to take their drugs on empty stomachs
The United Nations (UN) has raised a red flag on the rise in global hunger as a new report shows the world is moving backwards in efforts to eliminate hunger and malnutrition.
The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the world (SOFI) report released on July 6, 2022 indicates that global hunger numbers rose to as many as 828 million in 2021.
The figure shows an increase of about 46 million since 2020 and 150 million since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the report that provides fresh evidence that the world is moving further away from its goal of ending hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in all its forms by 2030.
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