Dr. Anita Asiimwe
The World Health Organisation Representative in Rwanda Dr. Dovlo Delanyo handed over the revised guidelines on the use of antiretroviral drugs for treating and preventing HIV infections to the Government of Rwanda.
While handing over the guidelines to the Minister of State in charge of public health and primary care, Dr. Anita Asiimwe, Dr. Delanyo noted that the impact of changing from the 2010 guidelines to the new 2013 guidelines globally aims at increasing access of ARVs from 17 million people to 26 million that need these drugs.
According to WHO, this will in turn help drop the annual mortality from 1.25 to 0.8 million people by 2025 hence increasing the possibility of averting close to 1 million deaths in coming 10 years.
The guidelines will also reduce new infections from the current 1.1 million to 0.65 million by 2025 hence averting close to 2 million infections in coming 10 years.
Dr. Anita Asiimwe called upon partners to assist in the implementation of these guidelines so that the targeted population receives high quality services.
In 2013, for the first time, WHO has revised and combined these and other ARV-related guidance documents into one consolidated guidelines that address the use of ARV drugs for HIV treatment and prevention across all age groups and populations, based on the broad continuum of HIV care.
The Resident Coordinator of the one UN, Manneh Lamin echoed the importance of the new guidelines citing that they will enhance measures leading to Zero HIV related deaths as well as zero new HIV infections.
Source : http://www.ubuzimabwacu.com/2013/08/new-arv-treatment-guidelines-to-increase-access/
New ARV treatment guidelines to increase access