Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2001. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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UN Integrated Regional Information Networks - September 15, 2001
The government has drawn widespread criticism for not supplying antiretroviral drugs to those infected. "The budget I have for medicines is 2 billion rand (US $233 million)," an AP report quoted Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang as saying at a press briefing. "If I were to buy antiretrovirals I would have to forget about everything else," she said, adding that the government would oppose a lawsuit filed last month by AIDS activists and paediatricians. The lawsuit aims to force the government to give the drug Nevirapine to all HIV-positive pregnant women to reduce their chances of passing the virus to their babies.
Nearly 200 South African babies were born with HIV/AIDS every day, and studies showed that Nevirapine could reduce that number by nearly 50 percent, according to the report. It said the government had established several research sites to test the effectiveness of the drug, but that the government said it could not provide the drug widely without support for patients. Patients needed counselling, follow-up treatment and assurances that they would not be isolated from their communities, Tshabalala-Msimang said.
Last month over 9,000 women visited the research centres and 6,400 of these had opted to be counselled and tested for HIV/AIDS. Zackie Achmat, chairman of the Treatment Action Campaign, said the government's opposition to the lawsuit was regrettable. "Every day the government delays, providing the drugs will cost lives and those are lives they could have saved," he was quoted as saying.
Tshabalala-Msimang announced contracts worth US $10.4 million had been awarded to two private communication consortiums to shore up the government's HIV/AIDS prevention campaign. "There is no way we are de-emphasising HIV and AIDS in this country," she was quoted as saying.
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