Médecins Sans Frontières or MSF has changed lives of people living with HIV and their families for better through mobile treatment centres, testifies traditional chief in Yambio Gbudue State.
Chief Arkangelo Rueben explains that ‘in the past, there was very little treatment for people living with HIV in the area. The sick just suffer and die’.
He adds that things got worse when the fighting started as many fled to areas with no access to healthcare.
MSF head of mission in South Sudan Jaume Rado says they initiated a ‘test and treat’ programme which has been running for two-and-half years in Yambio and will finish in June 2018.
He adds that currently, two mobile teams are running six centres where people are tested and receive antiretroviral drugs in the surrounding countryside of Yambio.
Rado explains that MSF wants to show that it is possible for people living with HIV can access services even in challenging environments
MSF service calls into rural communities at set times where a patient could be tested and have results the same day, says Farhan Adan, MSF Project Coordinator in Yambio.