Sunday Times, South Africa - December 12, 1999
Bobby Jordan
Zackie Achmat, the founder member of the Treatment Action Campaign, said he felt that taking the treatment would be ethically wrong when the majority of South African HIV/AIDS sufferers earned less than R600 a month and were unable to pay for the drugs.
"They cannot afford the treatment, which my friends would pay to let me live. I feel it is ethically wrong for me to take the treatment," Achmat said.
"Health cannot be dictated by profit. Health is a human right - and it is a central fact of all our lives that we cannot afford to be healthy."
He said he had asked the government to provide AZT or Nevaripine to pregnant women.
"We can prevent HIV from being transmitted to babies, and we should. It is morally, economically and scientifically unjustifiable not to provide AZT/Nevaripine to pregnant mothers," Achmat said.
Although boycotting treatment had saddened many people, he said his friends and some family members supported him. Achmat will talk about his decision on e.tv's Sunday night HIV/AIDS programme, Beat It.
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