The first gesture by the Head of State, President Paul Biya was the donation of FCFA 1 Billion in Yaoundé.

Before that, the sum of FCFA 5 billion was also made available in the 2013 budget for the purchase of antiretroviral drugs.

These drugs were received at the Centre for essential consumable medicines know by its French acronym as CENAME.

Drugs were received by the Minister of Public Health last Wednesday May28 alongside other government officials.

According to the CEO of CENAME Dr. Oussoumanou Taoussé, drugs received in two occasions were worth FCFA 1 billion and was ordered for 130,000 patients.

"We expect antiretroviral for FCFA 10 billion and given the volume of these products, we could not afford to store them all in our warehouses.

We received medicines worth FCFA 1billion, tomorrow it will be FCFA 3 billion, “explained Dr. Oussoumanou Taoussé. The first stock of antiretroviral drugs is meant to serve for a period of three and a half months.

The Director of CENAME added: " This is a good thing for suppliers because it allows them to program the manufacturing of these products. There will be no out of stock. “

543,294 people in Cameroon live with HIV, about 5.5% of the total population, according to the latest report from the World Health Organization (WHO).

Cameroon has entered the supply of antiretroviral in its public investment budget for fiscal year 2013.