CAPE TOWN, Aug 9 (AFP) - South African AIDS activists celebrated Saturday after a government decision to develop a plan to make antiretroviral (ARV) drugs available, but experts were hesitant in expressing optimism.
The AIDS lobby group, Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), said the government's announcement was a critical step in developing a comprehensive treatment and prevention plan for managing the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
"The TAC welcomes the Cabinet's instruction to the health ministry to develop an operational plan within one month to provide ARVs in the public sector," it said in a statement.
"Properly implemented, this will restore hope, dignity and life for millions of people in our country and hope throughout the continent."
The government's 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 HIV -- out of a total population of 45 million.
"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 statement from the government said.
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 report said it would 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 that 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.
Professor Udo Schuklenk, a specialist on AIDS ethics at South Africa's University of the Witwatersrand, said it seemed as though sanity had finally prevailed in the cabinet, but warned against overt optimism.
"The president is the king in this county and the health minister, who is a trained physician, has been compliant with breathtaking incompetence. I am sure there will be further shenanigans in the coming months," he said.
President Thabo Mbeki has stated that factors other than HIV could cause AIDS, while Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has delayed the provision of ARVs through repeated court battles with lobby groups, like the TAC.
Schuklenk said the challenge for government now was deciding how to administer the ARVs.
"If they use the available resources to roll out ARVs to metropolitain hospitals more lives will saved, but then the people in rural areas will be neglected. This will be a tough decision for them to make."
Swazi Hlubi, the executive director of the Network of AIDS Communities of South Africa, said he was cautiously optimistic about the government's decision.
"We are naturally quite pleased that our government has finally taken some action on an anti-retroviral treatment plan for its citizens," he said.
"However, our hopes have been raised and crushed many times before... so we will watch closely to ensure that ARV treatment truly becomes a reality here."
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