SA 'probing ways to fight Aids'

2004-07-13 07:17

Willemien Brummer and Antoinette Pienaar

Bangkok - The deregistration of single doses of nevirapine does not spell the end of South Africa's programme to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

The department of health is already looking at an alternative and is working on various combinations of antiretroviral (ARV) medicines.

Sibani Mngadi, spokesperson for the minister of health, who is attending the 15th International Aids Conference in Bangkok, announced this on Monday.

"There is no way we can just stop a programme that has proved beneficial," he said, adding that the department was investigating alternative treatment options and that it was looking at what other countries did.

It was reported from Cape Town that at a meeting on July 2, the Medicines Control Council had recommended that nevirapine and zidovudine (AZT), previously approved for monotherapy in mother-to-child cases, be used only in combination therapy.

The MCC said: "The approval of nevirapine as monotherapy for this indication, in April 2001, was conditional on monitoring of resistance and its impact on efficacy."

The MCC said significant numbers of mothers and babies built up resistance to nevirapine when exposed to it as a monotherapy to reduce the risk of the child contracting HIV from its mother during birth.

- Die Burger