Published by the government of Zimbabwe
Herald Reporter
13 May 2002
THE Government is drafting the appropriate legislation to ensure that anti-retroviral drugs are available to ordinary people at affordable prices, the deputy minister of Health and Child Welfare, Dr David Parirenyatwa, has said.
Dr Parirenyatwa who is attending the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Children in New York said his ministry was studying existing legislation to ensure that the acquisition of the anti-retroviral drugs was not in contrast to Zimbabwe's commitment to international agreements.
"It is common knowledge that HIV/Aids has devastated most sectors of the economy. The public provision of anti-retroviral drugs is being looked at in terms of affordability.
"It is actually cost effective for more drugs to be made available as it would alleviate a lot of suffering compared to the cost associated in looking after those whose situation may be considered to be desperate," he said.
Dr Parirenyatwa said the acquisition of the drugs would have to be done within the parameters set out by the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights of 1994 of which Zimbabwe is a signatory.
The agreement allows the Government, through the National Pharmaceutical Company, to procure the drugs from licensed dealers and protects the country from becoming a dumping ground of illegitimate drugs.
Dr Parirenyatwa said that failure to comply with the international agreements might spell disaster for Zimbabwe.
A wider supply of the drugs will bring a lot of relief to many people infected with the virus as well as those involved in looking after the sick.
Statistics indicate that at least 2 000 people are dying of HIV/Aids in the country every week. Zimbabwe has also been described as one of the countries worst affected by the HIV virus.
It is estimated that one in every four adults is infected with the Aids virus. In 1998, the life expectancy rate dropped to 39 years, a drop from 60 years in the previous decade.
At least 15 percent of new cases of HIV/Aids occur among children under the age of five.
It is also projected that in the next decade, 45 percent of all children will be orphaned by HIV/Aids and that half of the children will be infected with the Aids virus.
At the moment, HIV-positive pregnant women are being given free anti-HIV positive drugs at about 35 centres in the country as part of Government's efforts to reduce the transmission of the virus to the unborn child.
Zimbabwe is offering Niverapine, which is known to cut the risk of mother to child transmission by 50 percent.
A company from Germany, Boehringer Ingelheim, which makes Niverapine, is supplying the drug free of charge for the next five years.
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