OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Sunday 11.15am.
SCIENTISTS have heavily criticised President Thabo Mbeki for claiming that the internationally-used anti-AIDS drug AZT is dangerous to health.
Defending his government’s refusal to sanction the drug’s use to combat South Africa’s spiralling AIDS problem, Mbeki told the lower house of parliament this week that it would be “irresponsible” to sanction the drug as its efficacy was unproven.
Pharmaceutical multinational Glaxo Wellcome retorted that Mbeki had been “misinformed” about the safety of AZT, which had been approved safe for use even in countries with such stringent regulations as the United States and Germany.
“For more than a decade, AZT has extended and improved the quality of life of millions of people living with HIV/Aids around the globe,” according to the company’s medical director in South Africa, Peter Moore.
South Africa’s own Medicines Control Council had approved the drug, he added.
Mbeki told the National Council of the Provinces that there were legal cases pending against AZT in South Africa, the UK and the US.
There was also a large volume of scientific literature which claimed that the drug’s toxicity was a danger to health, Mbeki said.
“These are matters of great concern to the government, as it would be irresponsible not to heed the dire warnings which medical researchers have been making.”
There have been widespread calls in South Africa to make the drug available to AIDS patients, rape survirvors and pregnant women with HIV to prevent mother-to-child transmission.
Some 3.6 million South Africans — one in 11 — are HIV positive, according to government figures released in July.
Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said there was a body of scientific research and information indicating AZT was a dangerous drug.
She said her ministry would not like to look back 10 or 15 years down the line and find it had exposed the “vast majority” of historically-disadvantaged people in South Africa to a dangerous drug. — AFP