A government decision to appeal a Durban High Court ruling forcing it to provide anti-retroviral treatment to prisoners infected with HIV/Aids is ”a matter of principle”, the health department said on Friday.
”It is not about [government] refusing to give people treatment,” said director-general of the health department Thamsanqa Mseleku.
He said the issue was whether a court should be able to determine an aspect of government policy.
”Then what is the point of policy? If we find a facility does not meet the criteria for implementation [of an ARV treatment site] should we implement simply because a court says so?”
Mseleku was addressing the Johannesburg Press Club along with Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang on issues around the government’s comprehensive plan for HIV/Aids.
He said there were currently three correctional facilities which had been accredited according to policy, and those that were not accredited had access to nearby sites.
The recent death of a Westville prison inmate who was one of 15 prisoners who applied to the Durban High Court to force authorities to speed up ARV treatment sparked a series of protests by the Treatment Action Campaign.
The Correctional Services Department is appealing the execution order that compelled it to expedite ARV treatment of infected prisoners.
Mseleku said Westville prisoners had access to treatment at sites such as King Edward Hospital. Addressing reporters, Mseleku explained aspects of the government’s response to HIV/Aids, denying claims that South Africa did not have a plan.
He said the comprehensive plan aimed to provide for care, treatment and prevention of HIV/Aids, while strengthening the national health system.
A new strategic framework was being developed for the next five years, he said.
The next step would be how to take the knowledge that people had gained about HIV/Aids, and use it to change their behaviour.
Last week at the International Aids Conference in Toronto, United Nations’ special Aids envoy to Africa Stephen Lewis said South Africa was ”the only country in Africa whose government continues to propound theories more worthy of a lunatic fringe than of a concerned and compassionate state”.
Tshabalala-Msimang said the government had not over-emphasised nutrition in the fight against HIV/Aids.
”There is this notion that if you have not treated patients with ARVs then you have not done anything,” said Tshabalala-Msimang, challenging journalists to understand the government’s ”balanced” approach to the pandemic.
”The problem is you have repeated a lie to the point that you believe it yourself,” Mseleku said, on the belief that government over-emphasised nutrition.
”The minister has never said garlic and lemon are better than apples, bananas and spinach.” – Sapa