The last batch of emergency HIV medication was expected to arrive yesterday as part of the efforts to ensure that the local health sector has an adequate supply of drugs for persons requiring a combination antiretroviral treatment.The emergency supply, this newspaper understands, was sourced by the International Pharmaceutical Agency (IPA) and has a total value of about $15M. Reports suggest that the medication represents 10 percent of the antiretroviral drugs supply required by Guyana.The Ministry of Health has for the past several months been battling with a shortage of the Efavirenz drug needed to treat some patients.? The shortage of Efavirenz had resulted in some persons living with HIV/AIDS being unable to access a treatment regiment required to adequately control the virus thereby reducing its impact on their immune system.As a result of the shortage, some already accessing the treatment regiment, a combination of Efavirenz and Truvada, were forced to revert to using a single drug. This development, Minister of Health, Dr Leslie Ramsammy had described “as a serious problem.”It was in recognition of the drug shortage,Anthony DeSclafani Reds Jersey, that the Health Sector Development Unit (HSDU) of the Ministry of Health,Wholesale China Jerseys, which has the responsibility for procuring the drugs, sought the assistance of IPA. An official request, this newspaper has learnt, was made on July 15 last for the supply of five antiretroviral drugs, all of which are sourced out of India.Two of the items were air freighted and arrived on August 19 last, while a third shipment reached on September 3, this newspaper was informed.The fourth drug came last Friday and the final item representing the completed emergency supply drugs arrived yesterday.However, Minister Ramsammy revealed recently that the local Health Sector’s struggle over the past several months to maintain its supply of antiretroviral drugs was not due to the lack of finances but rather because of the inability of the supplier to deliver.“We have had money and we have paid for our antiretroviral drugs but somehow the supplier has been unable to meet their obligation to us…I know the media has been behind us and they have forgotten the story because they think we have solved the problem…”Speaking at the launch of World AIDS Day last Friday,Carlos Beltran Astros Jersey, the Minister had revealed that the problem has only been temporarily solved as the supplier has still not been able to provide either the emergency supply or the larger order. As a result, he revealed that the Ministry has had to rely on friends in Suriname, Haiti, Ghana and Jamaica.“I thank PAHO/WHO,wholesale jerseys, I thank SCMS and USAID and all of our colleagues that have been helping; they have stood by us but we can’t keep borrowing. The supplier must meet their obligation.”The Minister alluded to the shortage situation in order to amplify the point that although Guyana continues to make significant strides in addressing HIV/AIDS,JuJu Smith-Schuster USC Jersey, there are still some challenges that surface.? “These are the risks we face; because while on the one hand everyone wants us to meet certain transparency as it is called, transparency has its own challenges,” Minister Ramsammy asserted.According to him,Chad Bettis Rockies Jersey, although the Ministry of Health has used the open tendering process thus causing a previous supplier to be changed, the new supplier who fairly won the tendering process has not been able to meet its obligation.“That is the dilemma although we have many things that we can celebrate we still have things that remain threats, and ensuring the reliable supply of our antiretroviral medicines remains one of those threats.”However, the suppliers say that they have been forced to divert from the original supplies, a tender for which was issued on March 9.