Sunday Times, South Africa - Sunday, May 9, 1999
Laurice Taitz
The anti-AIDS drug, shown to reduce transmission of the virus from mother to child by more than 50 percent, will be given to the hospital free of charge by UNAIDS.
The move signals a shift in the policy which has been in place since Health Minister Dr Nkosazana Zuma's announcement in October that the government would not provide the drug.
Speaking on behalf of Zuma, Khangelani Hlongwane said: "We did not stop anyone from making those donations . . . We do not dispute the studies or the economics, we dispute the price - AZT is simply unaffordable. We are continuing to negotiate with the manufacturer, Glaxo Wellcome. But . . . there is no cure for AIDS. So for government the most telling impact on the disease will be made by intensifying education and increasing public awareness."
However, despite Hlongwane's assertion that it was not government policy to refuse free AZT, it has taken three months for permission to be granted for the hospital to accept the donation.
Dr Glenda Gray, of the Perinatal HIV Research Unit at the hospital, said: "It's a relief to know AZT will be available. We have been waiting since March and have been forced to turn away about 200 women a month. It was an act of goodwill on UNAIDS's behalf, and it is unfortunate that the system has worked so slowly in the case of this urgent intervention."
The donation of the anti-AIDS drug is a standard commitment made to all sites where UNAIDS research is carried out. Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital took part in the UNAIDS-sponsored Petra study in which research was carried out to prevent transmission of HIV from mother to child. The enrolment of pregnant women into the trials ended in September.
According to Lisa Jacobs, press officer for UNAIDS in Geneva, trials are always performed with government sanction, and the results are usually integrated into government policy. To bridge the gap between the time the trial ends and the research findings are implemented as national policy free drugs are made available. But the SA government's announcement in October that it would not provide AZT to pregnant women caused uncertainty, and UNAIDS held back on supplying the drugs. When the Health Department's stance remained unchanged, it approached the Gauteng Health Department, making a formal request for permission to donate the drugs.
Jo-Anne Collinge, department spokesman, confirmed it approved the donation "since the UN funding is within the ethical requirements of research. This is a provincial decision and it is not taken in defiance of national policy."
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