TAC: Vaccine prices a killer
2008-11-11 19:24
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UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has warned governments against using the economic crisis as an excuse to cut funding for fighting Aids.
Cape Town - Thousands of lives could be saved if prices for the vaccine against cervical cancer were reduced, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) said on Tuesday.
Briefing the media in Cape Town, TAC policy researcher Nosisa Mhlathi said more South Africans, particularly HIV-positive women, were succumbing to the deadly disease because of the unaffordable prices of Gardasil and Cervarix, vaccines that prevented cervical cancer.
"While 70% of cases of cervical cancer in the current generation of South African girls should be preventable, the cost of the vaccines which protects against the human papilloma virus (HPV) infection makes it inaccessible to the vast majority of those in need," she said.
In the private health care sector, the vaccines cost more that R2 000 for the three doses required to prevent the disease.
"This is well beyond the financial means of citizens who rely heavily on the public health care system," Mhlathi said.
Cervical cancer is the most commonly diagnosed form of cancer in SA, with 7 000 women contracting the disease every year.
"The concerns for SA, however, extend much further than those of developing countries due to the high national prevalence of HIV," Mhlathi said.
The TAC was currently negotiating with vaccine manufacturers Merck and GlaxoSmithKline for a price reduction.
While both companies had expressed a willingness to reduce prices, they were not willing to offer substantial discounts.
Mhlathi said the TAC would protest if demands of a substantial price reduction were not met.
- SAPA