Govt does about-turn on Aids
2002-04-18 09:56
Special Report
The South African government has announced a joint venture to reduce the cost of anti-retroviral drugs with a Swiss company.
Christi van der Westhuizen
Cape Town - The government has made an about-turn on its Aids policy with a cabinet decision to provide anti-Aids drugs soon in state institutions to curb HIV transmission to rape victims.
The cabinet also admitted for the first time that anti-Aids drugs were capable of "improving" health conditions of people with Aids.
These breakthroughs, for which Aids activists have been campaigning for several years, were announced at a media conference delayed for almost four hours while senior ministers and civil servants concerned with health and Aids issues were locked in discussions.
Wednesday's decisions are in direct conflict with a controversial African National Congress policy document of a month ago. The document said there was no proof that anti-Aids treatment was successfully preventing HIV transmission to rape victims and in needle-prick injuries at health institutions.
The ANC and President Thabo Mbeki have come under severe pressure in the past two years from Aids activists, doctors, health-care workers, the clergy and the international community.
It culminated in a Constitutional Court ruling ordering the government to provided nevirapine immediately to pregnant HIV-positive mothers.
Trying to bring down the costs
Science Minister Ben Ngubane said on Wednesday night that among reasons for the decision to provide anti-Aids drugs to rape victims was a government attempt to dispel the perception that it did not care and felt no urgency in tackling the Aids crisis.
"Realities" in South Africa make it difficult for the government to provide anti-Aids drugs to all those with Aids.
Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said: "Anti-Aids drugs are too expensive and harmful when administered incorrectly.
"The government therefore continues in its struggle to bring down costs of anti-Aids drugs and to try to persuade patients to closely follow treatment instructions as prescribed by their doctors."
The decision to provide anti-Aids drugs to rape victims stems from experience obtained in needle-prick injuries that affect medical personnel in their work, said government Aids programme chief, Dr Nono Simelela.
Anti-Aids drugs are administered in needle-prick injuries to prevent HIV transmission to doctors and nurses.
Research into the effectiveness of anti-Aids treatment in rape cases is impossible since establishing control groups of rape victims who do not receive anti-Aids drug treatment is out of the question.
The health department will closely monitor raped women who are on anti-Aids drugs, Simelela said.
She denied that the government had considered ending anti-Aids treatment for needle-prick injuries.
The ANC policy document of a month ago said this treatment should come under reconsideration since there was no proof that HIV transmission was being prevented. The health department at the time confirmed that Tshabalala-Msimang was reconsidering policy.
Both she and Dr Essop Pahad, minister in the president's office, declined to comment on the ANC document.
Tshabalala-Msimang indicated that Mbeki was dissatisfied with the ministerial committee in charge of the national aids council. A "presidential task team" was appointed with Pahad and Ngubane co-opted as new members.
- Beeld