BONDO, 17 May 2010 (PLUSNEWS) - Maria Obonyo walked 70km from her home to the nearest hospital in western Kenya's Bondo District to seek treatment for an uncomfortable rash but could not afford the US$2 for the ointment the doctor recommended. "I know I need the drug, but I can't buy it now," Obonyo told IRIN/PlusNews. "The money I have is just enough to buy porridge to give me energy to walk [back home]." When she can afford it, Obonyo, who has been living with HIV for five years, uses public transport to come for her monthly check-up and a refill of her life-prolonging antiretroviral (ARV) prescription; a one-way trip from her home to the hospital costs a little under a dollar. "I will just go back home and wait for them [the rashes] to disappear on their own," she said. The Kenyan government provides free antiretroviral treatment (ART) to more than 300,000 Kenyans and free diagnosis and treatment of TB, which has significantly lightened the financial load of people living with HIV, but for many, the cost of treating opportunistic infections and journeying to and from distant health centres is crippling. About half the Kenyan population gets by on less than $1 a day; in Bondo, with an HIV prevalence of more than 13 percent, an estimated 41 percent live on less than $1 a day.
http://www.itpcglobal.org/images/stories/doc/ITPC_MTT8_FINAL.pdf
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