AEGiS-IRIN: ZAMBIA: Pregnant HIV-positive women get AZT

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2000. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

ZAMBIA: Pregnant HIV-positive women get AZT

JOHANNESBURG, 13 November (IRIN) - Zambia, one of the sub-Saharan

African countries worst hit by the deadly AIDS pandemic, is to put thousands of pregnant women on the drug AZT, agencies reported on Monday. Dr Moses Sichone, director of the government's national secretariat on HIV and AIDS said that the government would test about 10,000 pregnant women.

Those who tested HIV-positive would receive AZT to try to prevent transmission of the HIV virus to their babies. "If you can do something to help why not do it?" said Sichone. He added that the AZT drugs had been acquired with the help of donors. He would not divulge the cost. Mulenga Kapwepwe, a Zambian anti-AIDS campaigner said the project would save the children but not the mothers.

"The child will live but the mother will die because she has AIDS and cannot afford the drug anymore. How long will they treat the mother is the big question," she said.

Integrated Regional Information Networks - November 13, 2000
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