Durban | Tuesday
THE anti-Aids drug Nevirapine could be dispensed from 20 major hospitals in South Africa’s eastern KwaZulu-Natal Province in six months, the province’s Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said on Monday.
Mkhize said research scientists, who are engaged in pilot projects ahead of the potential widespread use of Nevirapine, had made good progress in the past six months, but their work was not finished.
Aids treatment activists, churches, business leaders and trade unions are lobbying the national government to proceed with rapid distribution of Nevirapine to pregnant women in a bid to stem the transmission of HIV to infants.
At least 20 major hospitals in KwaZulu-Natal province, where more than a third of expectant mothers were HIV positive, could start administering the drug within six months, the minister said.
The 40 remaining smaller hospitals will be phased in over time, Mkhize added, but he stressed that the plans were only “very rough guidelines”.
Last week, provincial Premier Lionel Mtshali said Nevirapine would be given to all HIV-positive pregnant women to prevent them from transmitting the disease to their babies, making KwaZulu-Natal the second province after the Western Cape to break ranks with the government of President Thabo Mbeki.
National health authorities have been promoting pilot studies and clinical tests before proceeding with distribution, but media reports have said that doctors were already prescribing drugs more widely in defiance of government policy.
National Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang on Monday condemned the manner in which the Nevirapine issue had been handled in the province.
She said Mtshali’s announcement had created unnecessary expectations.
Mkhize said he has arranged meeting with the provincial cabinet as well as the national government this week.
“These processes are important to ensure that the programme is not derailed. We have to take into account the experiences of (health authorities) from other provinces and the national department,” he said.
The minister added that he was hopeful the national government would support whatever decision was taken by the KwaZulu-Natal government on Nevirapine.
More than 1 000 babies have received the anti-retroviral drug in the last six months at the two pilot sites based in KwaZulu-Natal.
Mkhize said no disciplinary action would be taken against provincial doctors who had been giving Nevirapine to HIV-positive women.
“We are dealing with an immense challenge with alternative approaches. I do not want to discipline anyone who tried what they tried,” Mkhize said. – AFP