Thursday, December 3, 2009

Malawi plans manufacturing of ARVs

Malawi President Dr Bingu wa Mutharika viewing some pavilions at the Dowa function.

By Our Reporter
The Malawi government says that it's planning to bring a company that can be manufacturing ARVs locally.

This ambitious plan has been announced by Malawi President Ngwazi Dr. Bingu wa Mutharika.

The Malawian leader, was speaking during events to mark a commemoration of the World Aids Day in the central region district of Dowa under the theme ‘Universal Access and Human Rights'

The State President said that work is already in progress to identify company that would produce the life prolonging medicine.

“This will make ARVs more accessible to people living with HIV thereby reducing the cost since the drugs will be produced locally,” said Dr Mutharika.

He said the project offers hope to people who have been found to have the virus that causes Aids.

“Time to regard ARV treatment as only for the rich is gone. I want each and every person who is HIV positive to access the drugs as any other person,” he said.

Mutharika, who commended Department of Nutrition, HIV and AIDS, the National Aids Commission and the corporate world for scaling down HIV and AIDS prevalence rate, said he was optimistic that there could be a drastic change if the country produced ARVs locally.

As part of the initiative to make HIV and AIDS services accessible, Dr. Mutharika pledged to continue sourcing equipment and other resources to bring HIV testing and counseling centres close to the people.

He advised Malawians to be responsible enough by making sure that they guard against themselves and their spouses to reduce transmission of the disease.

1 comment:

  1. This is a brilliant vision by the prsident on this most important challenge in our country. We hope indeed ARVs will be produced locally and made availbale to those affcted by the deadly desease AIDS at affordable costs indeed. We all must work together to fight properly and most agressively against this most serious problem which is robbing our country of brilliant young people and others as well.

    ReplyDelete