Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - March 18, 2001
Bobby Jordan
Government officials this week confirmed they had declined the offer from a stunned US drug company, Guardian Scientific Africa Incorporated.
Instead, the health department revealed it had awarded a multi-million rand tender to two foreign companies, Abbott Diagnostics and World Diagnostics, to provide the country's HIV testing needs. But the state is only paying for 200 000 kits a year in this contract.
The kits - able to diagnose HIV infection within five minutes from a single drop of blood - are the latest weapon in the war against HIV and AIDS. They are considered essential in managing the epidemic in which SA has a world-beating 4.2 million infections.
"It's hard to understand why they would buy them from one company and not accept them from us for free," said Guardian Scientific Africa director Madeline Wasserman.
"I can't understand their rejection. What we have is what they need and want," Wasserman said.
"There is nothing required of the government except approval. It's a free donation. Our objective is to stop the spread of new infections. We feel if we don't it will come to our country," she said.
She said her company's offer had already been accepted by 11 other African countries, including Nigeria and Botswana which has the highest HIV infection rate in the world.
The offer coincides with the latest edition of the authoritative and government-funded South African Health Review which found that four out of every 10 fixed clinics did not offer HIV testing.
"Nationally HIV tests are less available than syphilis tests," said the review, which is compiled by the private Health Systems Trust.
The test kits on offer have been tested by the South African National Institute for Virology where they were shown to be 99% accurate.
In a letter explaining the government's stance, Department of Health Director-General Ayanda Ntsaluba said accepting a donation while a local company was supplying similar kits "could be very problematic as it would be seen as infringing their contract ".
He also claimed the kit had not been locally tested.
Abbott's South African CEO Sean McKercher, the only person authorised to speak on behalf of the company, was overseas this week and not available for comment.
However a senior company official said Abbott was unlikely to protest if the government accepted the free offer.
"As long as they honour their tender with us I don't see that there could be a problem. "
"If there's a donation of a million free kits you can't really say no thank you," she said.
Health department spokesman Jo-Anne Collinge confirmed the tender details and that the offer had been rejected.
Doctors, meanwhile, were enthusiastic about the donation offer.
"If somebody wants to give us free test kits that would be fantastic," said Dr Kate Grimwade from Hlabisa Hospital in northern KwaZulu-Natal, the epicentre of South Africa's HIV epidemic.
"A million tests will last us for a good while - you'll probably find that's well over a year's supply," said Bethesda Hospital Superintendent Andrew Grant, also in northern KwaZulu-Natal.
But Dr Nicholas Crisp, a top medical academic, said the government had to be careful before accepting offers of free equipment.
"There's always a consequence. Maybe I'm being cynical but companies sometimes try and saturate a market with free tests . . . then they've captured the market ," Crisp said.
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