HEALTH-SOUTH AFRICA: Gov’t Reluctant to Approve Anti-AIDS Drugs

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Anthony Stoppard

JOHANNESBURG, Aug 4 2003 (IPS) - The South African government’s efforts to tackle the AIDS epidemic are persistently overshadowed by its apparent determination to delay introducing a treatment programme for people living with the disease.

This year alone, the government has earmarked an additional R3.3 billion (440 million U.S. dollars) to extend preventive programmes and to finance “medically appropriate treatments for HIV and AIDS”, according to its 2003 budget.

The government is now facing persistent criticism from anti-AIDS activists for delaying the drugs to manage the disease.

For people living with HIV and AIDS “the difficulties of stigma and the discrimination have been immeasurably compounded by the continuing absence of a coherent, rational and comprehensive national policy on the treatment of AIDS,” constitutional judge Edwin Cameron told the South African AIDS conference, which opened in the port city of Durban on Sunday.

At its congress which ended Sunday, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), a pressure group, discussed plans to resume mass protest action and civil disobedience to try and force the government to fast-track plans for a comprehensive treatment programme.

The TAC is lobbying government to make anti-retrovirals, drugs that ease the effects of HIV and AIDS and reduce the spread of the disease, freely available in the public health system. The campaign estimates as many as 600 South Africans are dying from AIDS-related diseases every day.

Last year, TAC won a court order to make anti-retrovirals available to pregnant mothers, to help reduce the chances of them infecting their babies.

Government has been slow to obey the order, saying it needs time to put the necessary infrastructure, nutritional and counselling support systems in place before the medication can be made widely available.

Last week, the South African Medical Control Council (MCC) stunned and angered anti-AIDS activists when it announced that it might withdraw temporary approval for Nevirapine, an anti-retroviral drug used to prevent transmission of HIV from mother-to- child, because of concerns about its safety. It gave the manufacturers 90 days to provide it with information proving the safety of the medication.

The drug is being widely used in many countries and by many international agencies to help prevent mothers passing HIV to their children.

The South African cabinet has also been accused of delaying a discussion on an inter-departmental study on the affordability of providing anti-retrovirals in the public health system. According to media reports, based on documents leaked by the TAC, South Africa can afford to provide anti-retrovirals to those who need it – and should do so. The report, the first version of which was completed months ago, is scheduled to go before cabinet within weeks.

South Africa now faces the possibility of loosing a R500-million (about 67-million-U.S.-dollar) grant from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, according to the Sunday Independent newspaper.

The money was allocated to an anti-HIV and AIDS programme in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal, which included the provision of anti-retrovirals to those that needed it.

The South African Minister of Health, Manto Tshabala-Msimang, initially stepped in and opposed the granting of the loan for bureaucratic reasons, almost 18 months ago. Since then, the government has not been able to complete the necessary paperwork, despite the secretariat of the fund twice visiting South Africa to sign the necessary documents.

The department of health insists that process to clear the way for South Africa to receive the grant is still on track.

The government’s opposition to the use of anti-retrovirals remains a mystery. Senior members of the government, including Tshabala-Msimang, have questioned the effectiveness of anti-retroviral drugs and have warned that they are toxic. But most medical doctors insist that presently they are the best drugs for managing and preventing the spread of the disease.

Speaking at the AIDS conference, South African Deputy President and chairperson of the South African National AIDS Council (SANAC), Jacob Zuma, said: “We never questioned the existence of HIV and AIDS. We are only trying to understand the causal factors beyond the virus. HIV and AIDS are regarded as a national priority. Government involvement is a product of political will and practical capacity.

“Some people sometimes feel that the government is not caring for people that are infected with HIV and AIDS by not providing them with antiretroviral therapy. We are in the process of finalising several international agreements that will ensure access to medication to the many people infected with HIV and AIDS.”(END/IPS/AF/SA/HE/SD/AP/MN/03)