Independent
On-line, 01 December 2002, Drugs for all brings hope on World Aids Day
It's taken court
battles, public protest and one person's refusal to take medication which could
save his life. But, finally, an agreement has been reached which could lead to
the provision of anti-retrovirals for Aids patients by next year.
Dramatic, last minute negotiations have culminated in a deal between the
government, unions, religious leaders, community organisations and Aids
activists at the National Economic, Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) on
the eve of World Aids Day, which is being commemorated on Sunday.
Only negotiators from the business sector still have to give their final
approval of the deal. "It looks like we have an agreement," Nedlac
executive director Phillip Dexter confirmed late on Saturday. "It's subject
to some modification, such as the detailed wording, but the principles are all
agreed."
This means that, for the first World Aids Day in many years, there is good news
for South Africans living with the virus. The agreement marks a fundamental
shift from last year's World Aids Day, when the government was facing a court
battle over the anti Aids drug, Nevirapine.
The Nedlac document is
an all-encompassing agreement which deals with everything from prevention
programmes to medication to goals for the reduction of
The agreement is binding on government because Nedlac
is a statutory body.
The agreement includes an understanding that "no
person should be sent away from hospital or a health care institution or not
treated because of their HIV status".
Provision is also made for: reducing by one fifth the
number of babies infected with HIV by 2005.
The document says this would be possible if 80
percent of pregnant women had access to Nevirapine, which halves the
transmission from mother to child; extending access to Nevirapine to the whole
country; providing antiretrovirals to all rape survivors to prevent them
contracting HIV; recognition of "the importance of the provision of
antiretrovirals treatment as an important component of a national prevention and
treatment plan"; the setting of national targets by next year to try to
reduce HIV prevalence by 25 percent among 15 to 24 year olds; and launching a
series of national days to promote HIV testing. The first of these will be on
March 1 next year.
But one of the biggest
breakthroughs is an understanding that could see anti-retrovirals triple therapy
being made available in the public sector some time next year. No deadlines have
been set for the provision of anti-retrovirals to people living with the virus.
However, there is an agreement that the parties who brokered the Nedlac deal
will return to negotiations after February next year, once a report by the
departments of health and finance about the affordability of antiretrovirals has
been completed.
Then new discussions will be held about the
logistical aspects of providing triple therapy to the estimated 4,7 million
South Africans living with HIV.
Aids activist Zackie Achmat, who can afford to buy
antiretrovirals but has refused to take them until the government agrees to make
them freely available, said he "really welcomed" the news that an
agreement had been reached at last. But he added: "We will only be really
happy once that agreement has been signed by all parties."
Asked if the Nedlac deal meant he would start triple
therapy, he said: "It is certainly one of the things that will make me
consider taking anti-retrovirals."
Officials from the department of health were
unavailable for comment.