Manto's comments surprise
2004-07-12 08:40
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Special Report
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has warned governments against using the economic crisis as an excuse to cut funding for fighting Aids.
Willemien Brummer
Bangkok - Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang caused a few raised eyebrows at her arrival here on Sunday with her statements about the "ever growing resistance against the prescription of nevirapine" for pregnant women who are HIV positive.
She also said there is a growing body of evidence that breastfeeding might be a better feeding option for HIV-positive women than the formula milk that government provides as part of its programme to prevent mother-to-child transmission of the virus.
Shortly before the opening of the largest conference on Aids yet, the minister addressed a few people outside the South African government's stand at the 15th international Aids conference.
"We hope this conference will bring us the answers we want," she said. "Shortly after the conference, we will arrange a national summit so the lessons we have learnt here could be implemented. We must ensure that government's programme is safe."
On Thursday, Doctor Glenda Gray, an Aids researcher at Chris Hani-Baragwanath Hospital, is expected to reveal research into a single dose of nevirapine in mother-to-child transmissions. Up to half of the women in the small group studied at this hospital developed a resistance to nevirapine.
And whether it is locally or abroad, Tshabalala-Msimang and the chairperson of the Treatment Action Campaign, Zackie Achmat, are still at each other's throats. At a march of Aids activists outside the Impact conference centre, Achmat said the minister was a danger to public health. "She does not understand the science, nevirapine or Aids statistics. I hope the medical authorities scrap her from the roll."
Amidst praise from a group of South Africans, Tshabalala-Msimang said her government was "forced by the courts and the TAC" to expand its nevirapine programme that was initially only introduced for research purposes.
She said it was a pity that none of the official conference sessions were dedicated to the important research being done into traditional medicine and HIV/Aids.
She again extolled the virtues of government's HIV/Aids prevention strategy and played down the importance of anti-retroviral medicines.
The minister said about 6 000 people receive free Aids treatment under government's Aids treatment programme.
She welcomed the latest Aids estimates of the Actuarial Society of South Africa that show that researchers over-estimated the number of South Africans living with HIV/Aids by 33 percent.
"I must say, I have always been concerned over the way in which Aids figures were compiled. The researchers have now reached new conclusions because they took government interventions into account."
Doctor Jim Kim, the World Health Organisation's director of HIV/Aids, said South Africa could lead the rest of Africa to reach the WHO's target to have three million people living with HIV/Aids receiving Aids treatment by 2005.
- Die Burger