PRETORIA, Aug 8 (AFP) - The South African cabinet has instructed the health ministry to develop a detailed operational plan to make antiretroviral drugs available to HIV and AIDS sufferers as a matter of urgency, the government announced Friday.
It added, though, that "those who are infected but have not as yet progressed to an advanced stage of AIDS (can) lead a normal life through proper nutrition, healthy lifestyles and treatment of opportunistic infections. In other words, not everyone who is infected with HIV would need antiretroviral treatment."
Specialists from the Clinton Foundation Aids Initiative set up by former US president Bill Clinton will help to draw up the plan, along with South African experts from outside the health ministry, the statement said.
"It is expected that this detailed work would be completed by the end of September 2003."
The statement added: "Government shares the impatience of many South Africans on the need to strengthen the nation's armoury in the fight against AIDS.
"Cabinet will therefore ensure that the remaining challenges are addressed with urgency; and that the final product guarantees a programme that is effective and sustainable."
The decision followed a special meeting of the cabinet on Friday to consider a report by the Treasury and the health ministry on treatment options for the five million South Africans infected with the HIV virus -- out of a total population of 45 million.
The statement said the government's decision had taken account of "new developments pertaining to prices of drugs, the growing body of knowledge on this issue, wide appreciation of the role of nutrition, and availability of budgetary resources".
It added: "The meeting reiterated government's principled approach that antiretroviral drugs do help improve the quality of life of those at a certain stage of the development of AIDS, if administered properly."
A summary of the report the cabinet considered says the HIV epidemic in South Africa is stabilising, with a significant reduction in its pace in younger age groups, the SAPA news agency reported.
The report said it will be necessary to maintain targeted spending of 550 million to 750 million rand (74 million to 102 million dollars) a year for the foreseeable future to ensure a comprehensive and effective health sector prevention programme is maintained.
Participants at a national AIDS conference this week urged the government to provide free anti-AIDS drugs in a country where almost 1,000 sufferers are dying every day.
The government took a barrage of criticism at the four-day conference in the east coast city of Durban as activists, church leaders, the media and a high-profile judge spoke out against its failure to roll out a national treatment plan.
A threat by the Medicines Control Council to ban the use of the antiretoviral drug nevirapine to reduce mother-to-child transmission of HIV -- endorsed by UN agencies -- also came under heavy attack.
Twenty percent of South African adults are HIV-positive, according to UN figures, and the country has 660,000 AIDS orphans. Around 360,000 South Africans died of the disease in 2001.
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