Last year the government allocated Bt2.796 billion for the NHSO to provide 80,000 people who have HIV with life-saving anti-retroviral drugs, said Dr Piya Netrawichien, the NHSO deputy secretary general.

This year the Budget Bureau has approved a budget of Bt3.8 billion for treatment and care of approximately 120,000 HIV-infected people.

The majority of the budget will help provide anti-retroviral medicines - both the basic regimens and second-line drugs for those 10 per cent of people who are disease resistant to the basic drugs, Piya said.

To take care of more than 47 million Thais, the NHSO this year was given a budget of about Bt1,899 per person. The budget for HIV treatment is a special addition.

The NHSO began to cover the treatment of people infected with HIV with live-saving drugs in 2005 - for those not covered by any other healthcare schemes.

Apart from the provision of anti-retroviral treatment, the budget will also provide other medical supplies associated with HIV treatment and care including testing to determine the patient's white blood-cell count and viral load.

The NHSO has also agreed to introduce a new pharmaceutical inventory system for the procurement and distribution of anti-HIV drugs.

It signed a memorandum of understanding with the Government Pharmaceutical Organisation (GPO) to adopt the Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) for use in managing HIV drugs and other drugs at hospitals under the universal healthcare scheme.

This new inventory system will help both the hospitals and the GPO to get rid of "dead stock", which could lead to drug resistance problems among HIV patients, said Dr Mongkol Jiwasantikarn, the GPO director.

Under the new system, the GPO and hospitals will be linked via the Internet.

The GPO would oversee the inventory for hospitals and help cut about Bt20 million in losses, said Mongkol.

Since the piloting of VMI in hospitals under the universal health scheme last year, the problem of out-of-stock HIV drugs had improved dramatically, said Virat Phurahong, the president of Thai Network of People Living with HIV/Aids.

Arthit Khwankhom

The Nation