Following the skyrocketing prices of essential commodities and food in the country, people living with HIV/AIDs in Northern Uganda risk losing their lives to poverty and expensive food items needed before taking their medication.
Stella Kentutsi, the Executive Director National Forum of People Living with HIV/ Aids Networks in Uganda (NAFOPHANU) advised people living with HIV in Gulu city and district to stick to the Antiretroviral medication despite the high costs of food.
She appealed to people living with HIV in the region last Thursday, as the project provided relief food to some of the patients in the city and district.
Commenting on the same subject, RX Radio presenters and hosts of The Fatboy Show James Onen and Olive Najjuma expressed dismay over the situation.
Fatboy proposed that the people stick to their medication as they try to fend for food because pausing it is like signing a death agreement.
But Olive believed that taking medication on empty stomachs is equally dangerous. “I think they are doomed if they do and doomed if they don’t. Because it has been said that if the medication is taken on empty stomachs for a longer period, they start getting side effects like hallucinations and more. That is why they are advised to eat because the medication is very strong,” she explained.
Although the presenters believed that the government is responsible for aiding such a trying situation, they alleged it wouldn’t.
Subsequently, they called upon charity organizations to lend a hand to the 600 and 400 people living with HIV in Arua district and city respectively, as preparations to lift the ban on NGOs by the President ensue.
The Fatboy show is hosted by James Onen aka Fatboy, Olive, and Sarah every weekday from 6 am to 10 am on RX Radio.