SOUTH AFRICA WAITS ON AIDS DRUG

AP 12 Feb. 2002

Cape Town -- The health minister maintained Tuesday that South Africa needs more research on internationally accepted drugs to combat AIDS before distributing them in public hospitals, defying mounting pressure to make the drugs more widely available.

Several prominent doctors' organizations have joined AIDS activists, church groups and trade unions in urging the South African government to begin distributing the drug nevirapine in state hospitals countrywide, saying its refusal was unethical and illogical.

Nevirapine is approved by the World Health Organization, and studies show it can reduce mother-to-child transmission of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, by up to 50 percent.

A study last year by the Medical Research Council found that up to 7 million South Africans could die of AIDS by 2010 unless efforts are stepped up to counter the epidemic. Last year, the government estimated 4.7 million South Africans are HIV-positive -- one in nine people.

Speculation has been rife in the local media for several weeks that the government was set to change its policy and extend distribution of nevirapine beyond 18 pilot sites.

President Thabo Mbeki had hinted in a state-of-the-nation address Friday that the number of distribution sites may be increased, and pledged to step up the fight against the epidemic.

But on Tuesday, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said research from the pilot sites still had to be evaluated -- a process expected to take several months.

"When you do research, the findings of that research must inform policy," she said. "You don't put the cart before the horse."

The government had committed itself to studying children who had been given nevirapine at pilot sites until they were 1 year old. The oldest child is now 8 months old.

"If one has to analyze policy now, it means we really have not done what we set out to do," the health minister said.

Last year, AIDS activists won a lawsuit compelling the government to begin distributing nevirapine.

The Cape High Court rejected the government's argument that infrastructure and counseling programs were inadequate for the drug to be effectively administered. The government has appealed the ruling.

Data collected at the research sites reinforced the government's concerns, Tshabalala-Msimang said.

"While we are still conducting studies on this, (a) rough estimation is that our public hospitals and clinics spend approximately $348 million a year in treating illnesses associated with HIV/AIDS," she said.

The government also plans to double funding for research into an AIDS vaccine to $1.7 million.