An accord has been signed by the Ministry of Public Health and the Clinton Foundation to provide second-line treatment to adults suffering from HIV/AIDS whose strains have developed resistance to treatment.

The accord was signed by Cameroon’s Public Health Minister, Urbain Olanguena Awono, and Regional Manager of the Francophone Africa Team of the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative, Jonathan Vessey, on May 25 at the conference hall of the Ministry of Public Health.

Vessey allayed worries by reassuring that the foundation would provide anti-retrovirals for second-line treatment into the national system.

He said that the need to include Cameroon amongst the 16 countries to benefit from the second-line treatment stems from the desire to encourage the Cameroon Government in its efforts to fight the killer disease and to ensure access to the population, given that the cost of the treatment is too high for the patients.

Tracing the engagement of the Clinton Foundation to the activities of the UNAIDS in May 28, 2007, Olanguena described the agreement as part of global efforts to ensure universal access to AIDS treatment.

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Source: www.allafrica.com

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