January 22, 2002
South Africa still has concerns on AIDS drug
South Africa has strong reservations about the use of an antiretroviral
AIDS drug that cuts the risk of mothers passing the deadly disease to their
newborns, the country's health minister said on Tuesday, January 22. Health
Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang reiterated Pretoria's controversial
opposition to the use of the drug nevirapine after a provincial leader said he
would allow its use in state hospitals despite government policy. Nevirapine is
at the centre of a heated court case between South African AIDS activists
demanding that Pretoria offer the drug to the public, citing the constitution's
clauses on the rights to health care and dignity.
Lionel Mtshali, premier of the largely rural KwaZulu-Natal province,
where as many as one out of three pregnant women are HIV-positive, said his
decision was based on the principle that emergency health care was a
constitutional right. South Africa is believed to have more people with
HIV-AIDS than any other country, with some five million sufferers. Some
70,000-100,000 babies are born HIV-positive each year, a number that experts
say could be reduced with the use of nevirapine and other drugs.
Tshabalala-Msimang rebuked Mtshali for ignoring government policy on
antiretrovirals. "His (Mtshali) announcement has taken us by surprise. We'd
have expected him to consult us, to cooperate with the government," she told
reporters. "Taking nevirapine is not like swallowing an aspirin. We want to
understand the other issues - of resistance and reversal of gains," the
minister said, adding that it would be irresponsible to dispense the drug
without the proper health infrastructure. Mtshali planned to roll out a
five-year programme for the drug's use within three months using supplies from
German pharmaceutical firm Boehringer Ingelheim, which had offered it for free,
Mtshali's spokesman Mahlati Tembe said.
Mtshali is a member of the opposition Inkatha Freedom Party. President
Thabo Mbeki, of the African National Congress, has expressed scepticism about
the causal link between HIV and AIDS and called antiretrovirals as toxic as the
condition they treat. He has also provoked controversy by appointing so-called
"AIDS dissidents", some arguing that AIDS is caused by recreational drug use,
to his advisory panel on the condition. AIDS drugs are extremely limited in the
public health sector despite Pretoria's legal success last year in beating off
attempts by 39 of the world's biggest drug firms to keep it from importing
cheaper generic versions of their medicines. KwaZulu-Natal would become the
second of South Africa's nine provinces to make nevirapine available at state
hospitals, following the lead of the wealthier Western Cape province. (The
Namibian)
|