PANOS London - Thursday, March 20, 1997
Gumisai Mutume

Three scientists from the University of Pretoria announced in January that they had developed a new, affordable drug - called Virodene P058 - which lowers the count of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) in the body.

Their claim caused a furore in the medical fraternity. According to the National AIDS Convention of South Africa (NACOSA), the sensational media coverage of the drug has given South Africa's estimated two million HIV-positive population false hopes of a cure.

According to NACOSA - an umbrella body for South African nongovernmental organsiations working on HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV have had their expectations unrealistically raised for an immediate and affordable treatment. The treatment is said to cost about $35 a month.

"AIDS education and prevention work have been sidelined by the sensational presentation to the cabinet and the accompanying media coverage," says NACOSA in a statement.

The three researchers, who were seeking some $800,000 from the government to complete their work, took some of their patients to a cabinet meeting where they announced their findings.

Their claim and a subsequent heated debate led to a decision by the researchers, the Ethics Committee of the University of Pretoria and South Africa's Medicines Control Council (MCC) to suspend human trials of Virodene.

The MCC said in a statement that no further patients would be studied and all treatment would be stopped until MCC and the Ethics Committee had studied all available information on Virodene's effects on patients and international literature and safety issues regarding the drug.

South Africa's national programme to combat HIV and Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD), and its AIDS education and awareness campaign, have been hampered by a shortage of funds and alleged corruption.

Last year, the AIDS campaign was embroiled in a three-million-dollar scandal arising from the mismanagement of funding from the European Union for a play on AIDS.

In 1994, when the new democratic government came to power, the HIV/STD programme was revamped and given an annual budget of $4.5 million - far less than the $57 million-a- year budget NACOSA had recommended to deal with the AIDS pandemic.

According to future projections by Southern Life Insurance in 1995, the government will spend 30 percent of its total health budget by the year 2010 on AIDS-related costs.

But on South Africa's streets, the hundreds of billboards that are supposed to be delivering powerful AIDS awareness and prevention messages are conspicuous by their absence.

Two years ago, the AIDS programme of the National Progressive Primary Health Care Network collapsed due to a lack of funding. According to Michael Worsnip, the programme's co-ordinator, this was the only community-level AIDS programme in South Africa.

The latest controversy on a purported AIDS cure, experts say, is another indicator of the country's uncoordinated efforts to deal with the spread of HIV/AIDS.

The three University of Pretoria scientists spent some $174,000 of their own money on the Virodene research.

Olgar Visser, one of the developers of Virodene, says that their research has now become bogged down in squabbles over the authenticity of their claims.

"Our aim is to help the millions of poor people in Africa and developing countries who cannot afford the drugs that are currently on the market," says Visser. Some of the AIDS drugs can cost as much as 4,000 Rands (about $870) a month.

The researchers say they have tested the drug on 10 volunteers over six months last year.

But South Africa's medical fraternity is up in arms, arguing that the team broke all the rules in the book. Instead of announcing their findings at a forum of medical experts or in a scientific journal, they chose the media. Also, Virodene has not been further tested within medical circles.

Visser says however that once the MCC concludes its review, the researchers intend to carry on with their work and plan to have Virodene by the turn of the century./IPS

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