JUSTIN ARENSTEIN, Nelspruit | Tuesday
MPUMALANGA Province has reiterated its ban on government hospitals issuing AZT or other anti-Aids drugs to rape survivors, despite urgent representations by rape counsellors, church groups and political parties.
Health MEC Sibongile Manana said in a statement that the provincial administration had reviewed and reaffirmed its decision not to allow the distribution or promotion of AZT, 3TC or other anti-retroviral drugs in public hospitals.
Manana stressed, however, that Mpumalanga had been granted national authorisation to run pilot research involving the distribution of Nevirapine to prevent the transmission of HIV from mother to child at two provincial hospitals.
The drug, which is still undergoing trials in South Africa, will be distributed at the rural Shongwe Hospital near Malelane and the urban Evander Hospital.
”The choice of these sites is indicative of the national and provincial government’s efforts to eradicate the scourge of HIV in both rural and urban areas,” said Manana.
She refused to explain, however, why the province had banned volunteer rape support organisations such as the Greater Nelspruit Rape Intervention Project (GRIP) from raising funds and distributing anti-retroviral drugs to rape survivors.
GRIP, which is a self-funded volunteer group, was evicted from Nelspruit’s Rob Ferreira and Themba hospitals in October for providing free medication and after-care funding to rape survivors.
Manana insisted that use of the drugs was part of a plot to undermine the African National Congress (ANC) government, endangered black lives and threatened to turn the country into a ”banana republic”.
She allowed GRIP back into hospitals on Friday following local and international support for its work, but warned it would be evicted again if the organisation stored, promoted or distributed anti-retroviral drugs at State facilities.
”[She] did indicate that rape survivors were free to seek this potentially life-saving treatment from the private sector. It is not clear at this stage how this will benefit child rape survivors who are usually admitted to State hospitals and are physically unable to consult private physicians,” said GRIP chairperson Hazel Moller.
GRIP records indicate that 52% of rape victims in Mpumalanga’s Lowveld region are under 16 years old, while at least 75% are the victims of gang rapes. – African Eye News Service