TAC: Missed opportunity
2003-02-26 16:57
Special Report
The South African government has announced a joint venture to reduce the cost of anti-retroviral drugs with a Swiss company.
Cape Town - The possibility of a national antiretroviral treatment programme for people with HIV/Aids gets a passing mention in the 2003 Budget, but without any clear commitment on financing.
Aids activist Zackie Achmat said after listening to Finance Minister Trevor Manuel's speech that it had been a "missed opportunity".
"We were hoping for a clear and unequivocal statement that HIV/Aids would be treated and they would sign the treatment plan," he said outside the National Assembly chamber.
"We are (still) hopeful, but we are disappointed at this missed opportunity."
Manuel told MPs the Budget "further reinforces the enhanced response to HIV/Aids".
"The Budget provides for a substantial reinforcement of our response to the health care challenges we face," he said.
"Over the next three years, an additional R3.3bn has been added to the provincial equitable share and conditional grants to extend preventative programmes and finance medically appropriate treatment for HIV/Aids," Manuel said.
"Medically appropriate treatment" could in theory include antiretrovirals."
But, said Achmat: "It's as if he couldn't use the word antiretroviral."
Manuel's announcement, he said, was an indication from the Treasury that there was money for a treatment plan in the Budget.
Civil disobedience
Achmat chairs the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), a pressure group which has threatened a civil disobedience campaign unless the government does come up with a treatment plan.
Achmat, who is HIV-positive, is refusing to take ARVs, despite intermittent health problems, until government commits to a plan.
The health ministry says it is awaiting the report of an interdepartmental task team appointed to report on the viability of a national programme.
The bulky Estimates of National Expenditure, released at the same time as Manuel's speech, says provincial allocations are being strengthened "to ensure not only that health services can generally cope with increased demand as a result of the disease, but also that appropriate treatment and care can be provided as policy develops".
"Investigations on the introduction of a national antiretroviral programme are far advanced, and recommendations are close to finalisation," it says.
Another document, the explanatory Budget Review, says: "Further increases in the budget for HIV/Aids is [sic] made to implement national government decisions and other programme priorities, including post-exposure prophylaxis for victims of sexual abuse, roll-out of mother-to-child prevention programmes, targeted interventions for commercial sex workers, voluntary counselling and testing."
- SAPA