Ugandan AIDS Patients and Care Providers to Fight Caps on Access to Lifesaving Treatment: Kampala Press Conference Wednesday, June 16th 11am

As Global Funders Retreat, Patients and Activists from the Consortium forAccess to AIDS Treatment (CAAT) and the National Forum for People Living with HIV/AIDS in Uganda (NAFOPHANU) will Unveil Plans for Protest March, Advocacy Efforts to Stop Thousands of Patients Already on Antiretroviral Therapy from Losing Access to Lifesaving Treatment

KAMPALA, Uganda, June 15, 2010 - As global AIDS treatment funders such as PEPFAR (President's Emergency
Plan for AIDS Relief) and the Global Fund retreat from ongoing commitments to
provide lifesaving antiretroviral treatment to people living with HIV/AIDS in
Africa and elsewhere in the developing world, thousands of people already on
treatment are losing access to antiretroviral treatment via programs and
providers that are placing caps on the number of people allotted access to
treatment slots in countries like Uganda. AIDS patients, medical providers
and activists from the Consortium for Access to AIDS Treatment (CAAT) and the
National Forum for People Living with HIV/AIDS in Uganda (NAFOPHANU) will
host a press conference Wednesday, June 16th in Kampala to decry these caps,
which are happening in programs run by governments as well as those run by
some private providers. Advocates view the caps as a death sentence, as they
prevent any new patients from enrolling in AIDS treatment; in addition, many
patients who are already on treatment are losing access to their lifesaving
AIDS medicines.

WHAT: PRESS CONFERENCE-Ugandan AIDS Patients & Activists to Protest and
Block Caps on Treatment Slots for Access to Lifesaving Antiretroviral
Treatment

    WHEN: WEDNESDAY, June 16th 11:00am

    WHERE: AHF's Uganda CARES Secretariat-KAMPALA
    Plot 1-Baker Road, Nakasero
    (P.O. Box 22914), Kampala, UGANDA

    VISUALS:
    - To be determined (TBD)

Activists at the press conference will announce advocacy efforts to try
and block and reverse the caps, including plans for a protest march to
highlight the havoc that the caps are wreaking throughout Uganda. One grave
concern the advocates will raise is the fact that thousands of individuals
who have already been on treatment have now been dropped due to caps in
enrollment. "I was part of a five year research study receiving
antiretroviral treatment in Tororo and as many as one-thousand of us were
dropped from treatment when that study ended," said Namuyomba G. an activist
with the National Forum for People Living with HIV/AIDS in Uganda (NAFOPHANU)
"We were told to go back to another provider who has told us the number is
too big and they are capped. Many of us have no treatment now. This situation
is simply not acceptable."

At the press conference, members of CAAT, the coalition of AIDS advocates
in Uganda, will declare their intention to fight the caps that are being
imposed on the treatment of HIV/AIDS patients in the country. CAAT will
announce plans for a patient march to stir moral indignation at the turning
away of new patients for life-saving therapy.

CAAT has rallied around four demands:

1. KEEP YOUR PROMISE - The promises of funding and access to treatment by
the United States and other donor countries must be met. US funding is
falling billions short of what was pledged only two years ago.

2. TREATMENT FIRST - Continued access to drugs and treatment must be
given the highest priority over any other service but especially
administrative overhead and indirect costs which are eating up billions of US
dollars.

3. ACCOUNTABILITY/EFFICIENCY - Uganda has received trillions of shillings
- more than enough to pay for every person with HIV who needs treatment.
Where has the money gone? Why does it cost so much to treat each patient? The
system must be made more efficient. The lives of hundreds of thousands of
Ugandans lives depend on it.

4. $20 BILLION UGANDAN SHILLINGS FOR AIDS DRUGS NOW - The Ugandan
Ministry of Health must reprioritize its AIDS budget to free up money to stop
the cap on new treatment slots. This is a small percentage of total AIDS
dollars coming into the country that will save 100,000 lives.

UGANDA: Media Contact, Dr. Penninah Iutung, AHF Africa Bureau Chief, Mobile l: +256-77554333, Mobile: 082-490-2413, Email: Penninah.iutung at aidshealth.org; or US: Media Contact, Terri Ford - In Uganda, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Senior Director of Global Policy/Advocacy, Mobile: +1-213-399-1001, Email: Terri.ford at aidshealth.org ; NOTE TO EDITORS: Uganda CARES Office +256-414-346-311 (or below media contacts)