Pain and grief have struck the people of Amuru district after three individuals living with HIV/AIDS in Pabbo town council allegedly starved to death due to the Covid-19 Lock-down.
Mary Rockia, Jackson Otto and a one Okwonga, all residents of Pabo town council reportedly died on Sunday last week due to starvation.
According to Bosco Opiru, the General Secretary Oyab Wangwu HIV Positive Person’s Association, the trio is part of 270 positive living persons who were categorized as most vulnerable people of the 3,470 positive living persons in Pabo town council.
Opiru says that the three members passed on after abandoning treatment due to lack of food suring the lock-down. They had been surviving on businesses which were suspended as part of the measures to contain the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Amuru District Health Officer Dr. Patrick Odong Olwedo says the department is doing all it can to ensure all people living with HIV/Aids in the district receive their ARVs, but that they have been facing a challenge of people abandoning drugs due to the Covid-19 situation in the country.
The group reportedly petitioned the District Covid19 Taskforce seeking relief food to support the most vulnerable members of the association in vain.
Geoffrey Oceng Osborn, the Amuru Deputy Resident District Commissioner acknowledges receipt of the petition from the association but says the task force has also tasked the District HIV focal point persons to collect data from the entire district before they petition the Office of the Prime Minister for food.
