The South African cabinet finally approved the provision of AIDS drugs to HIV-positive citizens through the public health system on 8 August. It instructed the health ministry to act "with urgency". This announcement came after months of a bitter row between South Africa's AIDS activists and the department of health, over the delay in implementing a treatment policy. The following is a chronology of events in the treatment access debate, from December 2001 through to the government's decision this month to introduce a treatment plan.
Equity in Health
Chronology of south african HIV/AIDS treatment access debate
Chronology of south african HIV/AIDS treatment access debate
The South African cabinet finally approved the provision of AIDS drugs to HIV-positive citizens through the public health system on 8 August. It instructed the health ministry to act "with urgency". This announcement came after months of a bitter row between South Africa's AIDS activists and the department of health, over the delay in implementing a treatment policy. The following is a chronology of events in the treatment access debate, from December 2001 through to the government's decision this month to introduce a treatment plan.
Demand for ARVs gives rise to grey market in Malawi
The illegal sale of anti-AIDS drugs in Malawi was endangering the lives of many HIV-positive citizens who were desperate to access affordable treatment, a health official told PlusNews. "Our major concern is that people are selling immune boosters and multivitamins, and cheating [HIV] positive people by saying they are antiretrovirals (ARVs)," Dr Bizwick Mwale, director of Malawi's national AIDS commission, told PlusNews.
DEVELOP AN ARV PLAN FOR THE PUBLIC SECTOR IN ONE MONTH - CABINET INSTRUCTION WELCOMED BY THE TREATMENT ACTION CAMPAIGN
TAC statement on south african cabinet ARV decision
The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) welcomes the Cabinet's instruction to the Department of Health to develop an operational plan within one month to provide ARVs in the public sector. The Cabinet endorsed the findings of the Joint Health and Treasury Task Team Report that between 500,000 and 1.7 million lives will be saved with anti-retroviral therapy. It also reaffirmed the science of HIV/AIDS pathogenesis and treatment. The TAC National Executive will formally suspend the civil disobedience campaign and reconsider pending litigation early next week. We welcome Cabinet's bold step today but we also remember the anguish, pain and unnecessary loss of lives over the last four years.
Related Link:
* Full report of the South African ARV task force
http://www.gov.za/reports/2003/ttr010803.pdf
Further details: /newsletter/id/29932
Hospitals in Africa are getting worse, says WHO
Shortages of essential medicines and medical equipment, a staffing crisis and inadequate infrastructure are undermining the quality of hospital care across sub-Saharan Africa. This could jeopardise plans to provide anti-AIDS drugs to people living with the HI virus, delegates attending the World Health Organisation (WHO) regional committee meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa, heard this week.
Further details: /newsletter/id/29968
massive population drop in southern africa
The population of HIV/Aids-ravaged southern Africa is expected to decline by 22% by 2050, according to a recent study. The latest world population data sheet of the United States-based Population Reference Bureau estimates South Africa's population will drop from 44 million this year to 35.1 million in 2025, and to 32.5 million in 2050 - a 26% decline.
massive population drop in southern africa
The population of HIV/Aids-ravaged southern Africa is expected to decline by 22% by 2050, according to a recent study. The latest world population data sheet of the United States-based Population Reference Bureau estimates South Africa's population will drop from 44 million this year to 35.1 million in 2025, and to 32.5 million in 2050 - a 26% decline.
SOUTH AFRICA: DYING TO FIGHT
'Avoid Aids, come inside' says the sign outside the sex shop near the Durban beachfront. Just 100 meters away 500 Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) activists, from 110 branches across South Africa, were meeting at the second TAC National Congress to plan how to carry on their fight for the roll out of a comprehensive treatment plan for the 5 million people living with HIV-AIDS. With the highest national HIV prevalence in the world, AIDS is estimated to have caused 40% of all adult deaths in 2001, as many as 1,000 people a day according to UNAIDS (a figure not challenged by the ANC government). Addressing the Congress on the final day, the historic nature of this campaign was underscored by the UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS, Stephen Lewis, who compared TAC with some of the greatest social movements of the twentieth century and the "anti-globalisation" movement of the twenty-first.
south african AIDS Meeting Ends with Call for Treatment
Scientists and activists at South Africa's first national AIDS conference, which drew to a close on August 6, urged the government to roll out rapid drug treatment for millions of South Africans dying from the disease. "The message is: don't wait. You've got to do something, and you have got to do it now," Salim Abdool Karim, scientific chair of the conference, told Reuters. "This is not an attack on the government. This is scientific fact." The four-day conference was a watershed in South Africa's public debate on AIDS policy, which is dominated by angry efforts to persuade the government to launch a national treatment program with antiretroviral drugs, which many scientists say represent the only way to avoid catastrophe.
WHO Looks to Ease Access to AIDS Drugs
The World Health Organisation announced last month that it will create a new model to buy antiretroviral AIDS drugs in hopes of dramatically speeding distribution and reducing the cost of the life-saving medication. The plan comes from collaboration among tuberculosis experts, foremost among them the new WHO director general, Jong-wook Lee. That program, called the TB Drug Facility, purchases drugs in bulk on behalf of countries and then oversees the distribution.
Read a response to this article in the Letters section of Equinet News.