Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1999. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday October 26, 1999
Steven Swindells

"It still remains a very expensive drug...We need to be very cautious," Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, whose ministry is struggling to combat the fastest-growing HIV infection rate in sub-Saharan Africa, told reporters. An estimated 1,500 South Africans are infected with HIV, which can give rise to full-blown AIDS, every day. The condition now afflicts three million of the country's 43 million people and has left nearly 700,000 orphans,

Tshabalala-Msimang's ministerial predecessor was heavily criticised last year for refusing, mainly on cost grounds, to approve a program to administer AZT to pregnant women in an effort to save their unborn children from HIV.

"It doesn't matter that Glaxo-Wellcome informs us to say that they have reduced the price but the truth of the matter is that they have reduced the price and linked it to the dollar," Tshabalala-Msimang said. "So when the rand falls, it means we are in trouble," the minister, appointed by President Thabo Mbeki in June, added.

The South African rand has weakened sharply against the dollar over the last two years and was severly ravaged in last year's emerging market crisis.

Glaxo Offers Preferential Pricing

Glaxo Wellcome has offered preferential pricing for its anti-retoviral medicines, including a 70 percent price reduction of AZT in South Africa compared to the world average.

But AZT availability is still scarce for those with HIV/AIDS and some women who have been raped have found it practically impossible to acquire the anti-retroviral drug.

Most rape victims in South Africa cannot afford the 2,000 to 4,000 rand ($325-$651) for the anti-AIDS drugs, which are not subsidized by the government.

The government wants to promote the manufacture of a local anti-AIDS drug. But its efforts to combat the epidemic are primarily based on improving safe-sex education. The cash-strapped health system has insufficient funds to buy enough drugs that fight HIV/AIDS.

Tshabalala-Msimang warned that South Africa faced a HIV/AIDS "epidemic of gigantic proportions" where as many as 60 pct of beds in some wards were occupied by people with HIV/AIDS and associated illnesses such as tuberculosis.

"Hospitals are bursting at the seams because of the number of people are now admitted," she said.

A council of government ministers and representatives of the private sector would be set up by the end of the year to coordinate government's anti-AIDS program, the minister said. ($-6.14 rand)
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