| KAMPALA, Uganda — Starting Nov. 10, over
200,000 Ugandans living with HIV will receive free basic preventive
care packages that enable them to live longer and healthier lives.
The Basic Care Package is a patient-managed, home-based care system
that empowers HIV positive people to prevent opportunistic infections,
delay the progression of HIV to AIDS and protect others from HIV.
It contains: cotrimoxazole prophylaxis (a broad-spectrum antibiotic
recommended by the WHO), long-lasting insecticide-treated mosquito
nets, water disinfection product and vessel, information on family
HIV counselling and testing and, as appropriate, condoms.
PSI is launching the Basic Care Package, with funding from the
President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, in an event held at
the Mulago Meedical School Quadrangle in Kamapala to be attended
by U.S. and Ugandan officials. The package was developed in conjunction
with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
and is well-suited for poor settings because it builds on existing
public health interventions to deliver high impact results at
a fraction of the per client cost of ARVs.
PSI, which has been providing nets, water disinfectant and HIV
counseling and testing separately from this new initiative, is
working with its partners to deliver over 60,000 basic care packages
free in the first year and then scale up in succeeding years.
If the pilot is successful, PSI hopes to make the package available
in other countries as soon as possible.
For more information, see the press
release at the website of the U.S. Embassy in Kampala.
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