Email 661: Sending ARV's from Egypt

Hi thank you for such great blog.

i'm from Egypt and i'm comming to philippines for a one year work contract and i'm HIV +ve  taking Efavirenz and Ziduvodine in Egypt.

i tried to make my family send me my medicine from Egypt to Philippines by the Egyptian mail but it didn't work because the Egyptian mail requires the name of the importing country in Egypt and as you know it is a grant from the united nations. and they tried with the DHL, they asked for the FDA approval code for the two medicines in Philippines but i just found ziduvodine and didn't find the efavirenz and they asked also for a bill for the medicine and it's free as you know.... what can i do????

is it possible to send my medicine from Egypt to philippines??? can i have medicine from any where in Philippines???? otherwise i will be forced to end my contract and come back to Egypt..... 

please help me

Thanks so much

RN

POZZIEPINOY'S RESPONSE

Hi RN.

Thank you for your email. Thank you for the kind words about the blog.

There are two scenarios here that you need to consider. One, the difficulty of sending ARV's from Egypt to the Philippines, as you wrote in your email and second the unavailability of ARV's in local pharmacies here.

First, let me discuss the first scenario. Although the Philippine immigration is not strict in bringing ARV's to the Philippines by foreigners as long as they bring a prescription and medical documents about their HIV status, in your case however, I don't know about how you will go through the process in Egypt in bringing the ARV's out of your country. It seems that they are very strict there. The best way is to really talk to the officials in Egypt on how you can really take your ARV's to the Philippines. You can also talk to the officials in the Philippine Embassy and ask them how you would go about bring your ARV's to the country. You can even have a letter from the Philippine Embassy addressed to the Philippine Immigration stating that you are being allowed to bring the ARV's to the Philippines.

In the second scenario, the ARV's here are not sold in any local pharmacies. They are only available in the HIV/AIDS Treatment hubs. Also, they are only given to Filipino's, Filipino nationals and foreigners with a certificate of permanent residency. In your case, since you are on a one year work contract here, it would be difficult for you to get the ARV's from the hubs as you won't be issued a permanent residency certificate.

Based on these two scenarios, here are my two options:

1. Bring to the country your entire supply of ARV's that will last for your stay here.

2. Bring to the country 2 months supply and every two months you go back to Egypt to 

    replenish your supply. You can also do this every 3 months or so.

Before you give up on your work contract here, try to to work on these scenarios and suggestions that I presented here.

I hope I was able to answer your concerns. Feel free to email me again if you have other concerns.

Stay healthy,

Pozziepinoy

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