Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2001. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Reuters NewMedia - Wednesday October 31, 2001
Steven Swindells

Finance Minister Trevor Manuel announced on Tuesday the country would quadruple state spending for AIDS-related support programmes to an annual 546 million rand ($58 million) by 2004 to boost its ability to cope with AIDS and related diseases.

The decision, unveiled in a preview of the national budget, also included fresh funds for pilot projects to give key antiretroviral drugs to mothers to reduce the chances of them passing the virus to their newborn.

Home-based care programmes for AIDS sufferers also received new funding. It was rare good news for the country's estimated five million AIDS sufferers, most of whom have to battle the disease as well as an overstretched health system and a scarcity of drugs in public hospitals and clinics.

"RIGHT DIRECTION"

Government policy towards its unprecedented health crisis has been marred by political controversy after President Thabo Mbeki questioned the causal link between HIV and AIDS and said certain AIDS drugs were as toxic as the disease itself.

And the health ministry has balked at buying AIDS drugs in quantities despite offers of free and heavily discounted drugs from Western pharmaceutical firms. David Harrison, chief executive of the Love Life group, which campaigns to educate the youth about the dangers of HIV-AIDS, praised the new funding decision, which included 25 million rand for Love Life.

"It's an unequivocal move in the right direction. It has to be welcomed," he said.

Harrison said the money should be targeted at providing counselling and testing services, information campaigns and the antiretroviral drug nevirapine in mother-to-child programmes.

National Association of People Living With AIDS director Nkululeko Nxesi also applauded the government move, but said more needed to be done to ensure the funds reached the right people.

"It's a positive move, showing that government realises that HIV-AIDS is a crisis and that something has to be done as soon as possible," Nxesi said. "But there are too many organisations springing up just to make profits. There's a growing lack of morality," Nxesi said, calling for the money to be spent on counselling, treatment and homecare initiatives.

South Africa's top research body, the Medical Research Council, says that as many as seven million South Africans could die of AIDS by the end of the decade. In one of the first official estimates of the impact of the disease on the health system, Manuel's National Treasury said treatment of AIDS-related illnesses would cost nearly four billion rand in the current financial year.
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