South Africa unveils national HIV/AIDS treatment programme

The African Cabinet approved a national HIV/AIDS treatment programme on 19 November 2003 representing a major policy change for President Thabo Mbeki's government which had been criticized for failing to tackle the AIDS pandemic. The programme plans to distribute flee antiretroviral drugs through service points in every health district within one year and in every local municipality within five years. It aims to treat about 1.2 million people by 2008. It is not yet clear when the drugs will be made available. Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, Africa's Minister of Health, said that the government still needed to put out a render for the drugs, train health care workers and identify and upgrade distribution centres, particularly in rural areas. is still a long way to go, she said. I don't want to raise false hopes, but a decision has been made. There is hope. This is a far-reaching decision which demonstrates that the African Government is ready to play a stronger role in meeting the challenge of treating millions of people living with AIDS in Africa, said Dr LEE Jongwook, Director-General of the World Health Organization. The programme's treatment goals were brought further within reach following an agreement on 10 December by pharmaceutical companies, GlaxoSmithKline and Boeringer Ingelheim, to permit large-scale manufacture of generic versions of their patented HIV/AIDS drugs for the country, following an out-of-court settlement with African's Treatment Action Campaign. Around 5 million people in Africa are currently HIV-positive--that's 11% of the country's total population of 47 million. WHO estimates that around 15% of the total HIV-positive population are in need of treatment-higher than anywhere else in the world. By 2008, this figure will have increased as more people reach the final stages of the disease. The programme's 1.2 million target figure includes this projected increase. South Africa's bold move to ensure that millions of HIV-positive people have access to treatment should mobilize other African governments to make treatment a reality for those infected, said Dr Peter Hot, UNAIDS Executive Director, welcoming the new phase in Africa's response to AIDS. The African Government had previously been criticized by AIDS activists for asserting that HLV did not cause AIDS and for questioning the effectiveness of anti-retroviral drugs. …