WOZA (Johannesburg)
Marjolein Harvey
14 July 2000
Johannesburg — Legal proceedings to spur government action on findings presented to it more than three weeks ago and made public at the AIDS2000 conference in Durban this week, on the efficacy of nevirapine and AZT in the reduction of mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of HIV, are to be instituted by AIDS activist NGO the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC).
The TAC also announced on Thursday that it would start legal action to obtain a compulsory licence against multinational pharmaceutical company Pfizer, who reneged on its promise to provide fluconazole for free to South Africans living with HIV/AIDS.
"We ask all international allies to boycott non-medically essential Pfizer products. In the meantime the TAC will prepare for a defiance campaign against drug companies by importing good quality generic medications including fluconazole and ensuring that they are available to health facilities for appropriate use," Mark Heywood of the TAC said.
The TAC also announced that it would launch a national Treatment Action Council in September 2000 that will build on the broad base of support that already exists for their demands and ensure that they are enforced at every level of society.
The announcements follow Sunday's historic Global March for HIV/AIDS Treatment joined by 5 000 people representing millions of members worldwide which ended with the handing over of a memorandum to Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, UNAIDS director Peter Piot, AIDS2000 Chair Jerry Coovadia and Stephano Vellas, demanding immediate answers to when nevirapine for MTCT would be phased into the public health system.
The recipients have until Friday, the close of the conference, to make an initial response to the demands, with a more detailed response by August.
"Reports from countries like Brazil which have implemented the provision of antiretrovirals in the public health system are encouraging," said TAC's Zackie Achmat, himself living with HIV.
He said that an HIV/AIDS clinicians society has started to draw up guidelines for the provision of nevirapine and AZT in the SA public health system and that there are adequate health facilities in many parts of SA to deal with the distribution and monitoring of the drugs.
"There are no reasons for any more delays by government," says Achmat. "There is no doubt that the government's economic policies are keeping people poor - in a health crisis where millions are dying and nurses are seeing the deaths of three to four of their colleagues every week, governmemt should allocate more money to HIV/AIDS."
"It's not just about the cost of treatment, the cost of no treatment should also be kept in mind," said Heywood, adding that the debates of "HIV or no HIV are long over, what should be asked now is the most appropriate way to move forward in SA".
He said that the constitution puts a duty on government to progressively increase the access to healthcare services to all South Africans and that government should weigh up its constitutional mandate against its restricted view of its international mandate in terms of international trade policies.
Achmat added that pilot studies in SA were led by its best scientists without government support - "we don't want any more pilot projects, we want phased-in implementation.
"We can't change the fact that millions of South Africans are HIV- positive at the moment, but we can change the impact of that now," said Cati Vawda of the Children's Rights Centre and a TAC member.
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