A container with free Anti-retroviral Drugs (ARVs) for 500 HIV/AIDS patients in the OECS has arrived in the Eastern Caribbean. This shipment has arrived about a week after Head of the OECS Pharmaceutical Procurement Service Unit, (OECSPPS) Frances Burnett, confirmed the departure of the consignment from Brazil, 

on Health Issues a weekly programme aired every Monday on the OECS News Link. The shipment is part of the Brazil Caricom Agreement. “We are very pleased to announce that the first shipment under the Brazilian/Caricom initiative is on its way. It’s a donation valued at about 160 thousand US dollars.

The ARVs are mostly first line but one or two second lines are part of the package”. This grant from the government and people of Brazil will run for three years in the first instance. Brazil’s first shipment of ARV’s will accommodate the forecasted period of 12 months regarding treatment needs for persons living with HIV/AIDS. 

The consignment for each OECS country is prepackaged in nine boxes within a larger external container. The ARVs are expected to be ready for distribution in all OECS Member States by early May. UNICEF Brazil has paid for the consignment. “What we gave the government of Brazil was the forecasted quantities for ARV’s for 12 months. It’s a twelve month forecast and we hope to work out the logistics and distribution of it and the Government of Brazil has pledged to provide the free supply of ARVs for three years once we work everything out well according to schedule.”

Brazil’s supply of free ARVs to 500 OECS HIV/AIDS patients isone of the components of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of Brazil and Caricom for a number of initiatives.