SOUTH AFRICA: A National Health Controversy Takes on Regional Dimensions

By Miriam Mannak Reprint | | Print |

Miriam Mannak

CAPE TOWN, Sep 27 2007 (IPS) - The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), one of South Africa’s largest AIDS lobby groups, says it has obtained evidence indicating that government was implicated in illegal medical experiments on people living with HIV/AIDS in Tanzania, involving the discredited product Virodene.

According to the TAC, authorities encouraged and funded several illegal experiments with this treatment in the East African country between 2000 and 2001.

Developed by a pharmaceutical company based in the South African capital, Pretoria, Virodene was put forward in the late 1990s as a cure for AIDS. President Thabo Mbeki was said to be a supporter of the product.

But after a 22-month enquiry the South African Medicines Control Council (MCC) rejected the substance, finding it to be ineffective in treating HIV/AIDS and also toxic. The ingredients of Virodene include an industrial solvent that has a disastrous effect on the liver.

No Virodene trials have been conducted in South Africa since the drug was dismissed by the MCC.

However, "Approximately 5.7 million dollars was handed over from representatives from the presidency to…producers of Virodene between 2000 and 2001," said TAC founder and chairman Zackie Achmat Wednesday at a press conference in the South African port city of Cape Town.

"This amount was routinely collected from various locations, including the office of a ANC-linked businessman. According to our evidence, this money went straight towards the research, promotion and developing of Virodene in Tanzania. This claim is substantiated by hundreds of e-mails, faxes and letters," he added, in reference to the ruling African National Congress.

While the money was being collected and further distributed, says the TAC, the Tanzanian People’s Defense Force conducted trials with Virodene at two separate health care facilities in Tanzania’s capital, Dar-es-Salaam.

"The experiments involved 64 HIV-positive men, both retired military personnel and civilians," noted Achmat, who is HIV positive himself. "In 2001, South Africa’s health minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, visited Tanzania to inspect the Virodene trials. She has acknowledged this herself."

According to the TAC, the trials in Tanzania were stopped shortly after Tshabalala-Msimang’s visit – but resumed about a year later.

The TAC says it will call for the appointment of a judicial commission of enquiry to investigate the experiments in Tanzania, as well as the South African government’s role in this matter.

"The South African government, with its involvement in the Virodene experiments, broke…international law," said Achmat.

"It is unlawful for governments to undertake human trials with illegal and unregistered medication, and that is exactly what Virodene is. No medicines regulatory authority in the world has acknowledged this particular substance as a proper anti-AIDS drug. Or any drug, as a matter of fact."

In response to an observation that the presidency might reject the establishment of such a commission, Achmat said the TAC would continue to push for enquiries. "We are not known to make hollow calls. We will do what is necessary to get to the bottom of this."

"Future steps will be announced in the next few days."

This is not the first time the South African government has been held up to scrutiny with regard to HIV/AIDS.

Mbeki has come under fire for questioning the link between HIV and AIDS. During the 2000 International AIDS Conference in Durban, he made a speech in which he mentioned poverty as being the main cause of AIDS, instead of HIV. Tshabalala-Msimang, in turn, has been accused of leading people to believe that certain types of food, such as garlic and beetroot, can serve as a treatment for HIV/AIDS.

The slow provision of anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs), which prolong the lives of AIDS patients, has been another bone of contention.

South African authorities only approved a plan to make ARVs available to the public in 2003. The aim was to provide treatment to 300,000 people by the end of 2006, giving South Africa the largest ARV programme in the world.

The health department says this goal has been achieved. But, much remains to be done. The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS estimates that 800,000 of the 5.3 million South Africans who are living with HIV/AIDS are in need of treatment. And, this number is increasing rapidly: according to the South African Human Sciences Research Council, 1,500 South Africans are infected on a daily basis, and over 300,000 are dying each year of AIDS-related illnesses.

"The Department of Health says that 300,000 South Africans are currently receiving ARVs," said Achmat. "It is a step in the right direction, but…the roll out is too slow."

"At the moment, almost a million people are in need of government-funded treatment. These are mainly people who cannot afford private health care and therefore depend on free medication", he added.

"I am lucky in that respect. I can afford to pay 71 dollars per month for my drugs at a private clinic. Poor people are not that lucky."