Medical experts say in Cameroon and other African countries, it is time to start thinking of HIV patients who have been on anti-retroviral treatment for a long time because the virus (HIV) is always trying to find a way to escape treatment and later develop resistance to drugs. It is within this backdrop that the Minister of Public Health, Andre Mama Fouda, yesterday July 10 at the "Chantal Biya" International Reference Centre For Research on HIV and AIDS Prevention and Management (CIRCB) opened a three-day training workshop on "Long -term Management of HIV/AIDS and Viral Co-infections".

While opening the workshop in the presence of the Representative W.H.O, Dr Charlotte Ndiaye and the Chairman of CIRCB Management Board, Jean Stephane Biatcha, Minister Andre Mama Fouda said drug resistance is a serious setback in the fight against HIV. While lauding the efforts of CIRCB in the fight against the disease, the minister reiterated the First Lady's words during the inauguration of the centre when she said "maybe one day, the works of CIRCB, will help conquer HIV."

The workshop which is an initiative of the Collaborative HIV and Anti-HIV Drug Resistance Network (CHAIN) - European Union Seventh Programme started in 2010. The Scientific Office of CHAIN's project at CIRCB, Dr Judith Torimiro said, is timely for clinicians in all the ten regions in Cameroon and countries such as Chad, Central African Republic and Democratic Republic of Congo to come together and discuss the challenges that they face in the field and laboratories.

The results of discussions will be transmitted to different ministries of public health to see how to modify the different treatment protocols available. Participants are examining the nature of the HIV (how they look and why they behave the way they do), the immunity of people infected with HIV and how they will respond to common vaccines such as hepatitis that they need to take. The clinicians will also look at the state of people living with HIV and hepatitis viruses and the best way to manage them.