ARV bungle killed 330 000
2008-11-19 22:33
Special Report
The South African government has announced a joint venture to reduce the cost of anti-retroviral drugs with a Swiss company.
Johannesburg - Over 330 000 lives were lost to HIV/Aids in South Africa between 2000 and 2005 because a feasible and timely antiretroviral (ARV) treatment programme was not implemented, a study revealed on Wednesday.
In addition, 35 000 babies were born with HIV during the same period because anti-Aids drug nevirapine was not made available, according to researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health. Their study was published online by the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.
"Access to appropriate public health practice is often determined by a small number of political leaders. In the case of South Africa, many lives were lost because of a failure to accept the use of available ARVs to prevent and treat HIV/Aids in a timely manner," wrote the researchers.
South Africa is one of the most severely affected countries in the world by the Aids epidemic, with approximately 5.5 million people infected with HIV.
Between 2000 and 2005 the government led by former president Thabo Mbeki restricted use of donated nevirapine. For more than a year it blocked funds destined for KwaZulu-Natal from the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, the study recounted.
"The country's government launched a national programme for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission in August 2003 and a national ARV treatment programme in 2004," wrote lead author of the study, Dr Pride Chigwedere.
By 2005, it was estimated that there was 23% ARV treatment coverage and less than 30% prevention of mother-to-child transmission coverage.
In contrast, neighbouring Botswana began a programme for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission in 1999 and a national ARV treatment programme in 2001.
Botswana and Namibia had achieved 70% prevention of mother-to-child transmission coverage by 2005.
"The analysis is robust. We used a transparent and accessible calculation, publicly available data, and, where we made assumptions, we explained their basis," said Chigwedere.
- SAPA