Govt to roll out Aids drugs
13 August 2003
In what has been hailed as a "watershed" move, the government has ordered the health department to urgently develop a detailed operational plan to provide antiretroviral drugs to people living with HIV/Aids.
The decision followed a special Cabinet meeting on Friday to consider a report by the Joint Health and Treasury Task Team which found that the introduction of antiretroviral therapy in the public health sector "would have a significant impact on Aids mortality, reducing considerably the number of deaths from Aids during the next decade".
Universal provision of antiretrovirals, the report said, would see approximately 1.2 million people on treatment by 2008, and was likely to save the lives of more than 1.7 million people between 2003 and 2010.
The Cabinet unanimously adopted the report's recommendations, saying that new developments on drug prices, the growing body of knowledge on the issue, wider appreciation of the role of
nutrition, and the availability of budgetary resources had "enabled government to consider this enhanced response".
The Cabinet said the government shared the impatience of many South Africans on the need to strengthen the nation's armoury in the fight against Aids, and that it would therefore "ensure that the remaining challenges are addressed with urgency, and that the final product guarantees a programme that is effective and sustainable".
On Monday, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang expressed her determination have an operational plan in place by the end of September.
South African experts, as well as specialists from the Clinton Foundation Aids Initiative, will be roped in to help with the planning.
At the same time, the Cabinet said it was critical for South Africa not to lower its guard, as there was no cure for Aids. A primary challenge, it noted, was to ensure that the 40 million South Africans who were not infected remained so; and that those
infected but not yet in an advanced stage of the disease led a normal life supported by proper nutrition, healthy lifestyles and effective treatment of opportunistic infections.
'Watershed' move
Aids experts and drug lobby groups such as the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) have commended government for the "watershed" move.
The TAC pledged to its full support for the programme, saying that, properly implemented, it would "restore hope, dignity and life for millions of people in our country", and enable health professionals and communities to work together with the government to build a better health care system in South Africa.
"We will work with government to save lives and build a better health service", the TAC said. "The private sector, drug companies, civil society, international agencies and individuals need to redouble our efforts to improve prevention, treatment and care."
The executive director of the Joint UN
Programme on HIV/Aids (UNAids), Peter Piot, said the decision exemplified the leadership needed to reverse the global epidemic.
"South Africa's response to Aids now enters a critical new phase - one that is characterised by strong political commitment, a dynamic grassroots movement, more funding, and scaling up of prevention and treatment programmes", Piot said in a statement issued in Geneva on Monday.
The new nationwide initiative, he said, "will make [South Africa's] fight against Aids truly comprehensive, with treatment complementing prevention efforts".
Addressing a South African Aids conference held in Durban last week, Piot, speaking by video link-up, said that as much as HIV treatment should be urgently expanded, it was important that developing nations did not commit the same mistakes made by richer nations when antiretroviral therapy was introduced.
"We must not neglect HIV prevention", Piot said. "We must not limit the response to Aids to a
therapeutic model with the doctor at the centre, thereby neglecting community action, programmes with youth, engagement of all sectors of society."
SouthAfrica.info reporter
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