TAC slams govt decision

2004-07-14 08:40

Bangkok - South African activists on Wednesday decried their government's decision against recommending the use of a key anti-Aids drug that could prevent the virus from being passed by infected mothers to their children.

The South African government's drug council says it won't recommend that nevirapine be used by itself - when not in combination with other antiretroviral drugs - because of indications that patients might be developing a resistance to antiretroviral treatment.

But activists said it was wrong to blacklist a drug now available in cheap, generic form and which has been shown to help prevent mother to child HIV transmission.

The government should not say "nevirapine is poison," and thus spread "confusion among poor people," Zackie Achmat, head the Treatment Action Campaign, said at the International Aids Conference in Bangkok.

In 2002, a South African court ruled that the government must give women access to the drug, nevirapine, through the public health system. The government had argued that it had to first test whether the drug was dangerous before providing it.

Studies have shown a dose of nevirapine given to infected pregnant women during labour followed by a dose given to the newborn baby can reduce transmission of HIV by up to 50%.

"What do we do today when our governments continue to create confusion?" said Sipho Mthati of the Treatment Action Campaign.

South Africa has the highest-number of HIV-positive people in the world, with an estimated 5.3 million people infected.

- AP