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Babies with HIV/AIDS to get anti-retroviral treatment in Western Cape
Di Caelers. Cape Argus. 16 April 2003. Republished courtesy of Independent Newspapers (Pty) Ltd.
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Babies and children with HIV/AIDS in the Western Cape are set to get access to life-prolonging anti-retroviral drugs.
That was the public commitment from the provincial government on Tuesday.
Head of the HIV/AIDS unit in the Western Cape, Dr Fareed Abdullah, said his department was costing the provision of anti-retrovirals to children throughout the Western Cape.
But the decision would also have to wait until the release of the national health-finance task team report on the provision of anti-retrovirals in the state health sector, expected within weeks.
Early in March the Western Cape legislature adopted a motion to provide triple-therapy treatment to all HIV-positive babies and children who need the drugs.
This was confirmed on Tuesday, and even though the costs have not been budgeted for in the 2003/04 health figures, Abdullah said they would have to identify areas from which funding could be removed, or alternative funding avenues explored.
Although the issue has come to light only this week, Abdullah said his department had been examining the issue for the past 18 months, including involvement in pilot treatment programmes for children.
"We have more than 80 children on anti-retrovirals at Groote Schuur Hospital, another 40 in Khayelitsha, about 12 at Red Cross Children's Hospital, and another 80 on clinical trials at Tygerberg Hospital," he said.
The Western Cape has a proud record in moving fast in tackling the HIV/AIDS pandemic, leaving most other parts of South Africa behind.
In March the province celebrated a 100 percent roll-out of its mother-to-child HIV transmission programme, in terms of which pregnant HIV-positive women can access the anti-AIDS drug Nevirapine at their nearest clinic.
The drug has been shown to cut by half the chances of a new baby contracting the virus from its HIV-positive mother, with implications in the longer term for contributing to the reduction of the number of infected children.
Robin Carlisle, the Democratic Alliance's health spokesperson, said that extensive tests at Groote Schuur and Tygerberg hospitals had demonstrated that most HIV-positive children responded "amazingly" well and quickly to anti-retrovirals.
"Desperately ill children are usually transformed within weeks," he said.
Carlisle also committed the DA to approaching trusts and foundations to help secure funding for the treatment.
He said the image of babies with HIV/AIDS lying desperately ill in their cots would stay with him forever.
"Their untimely and horrible deaths have been a reflection on all of us, and a cause of increasing despair to the health workers who care for them," said Carlisle.
Abdullah said the costing exercise was difficult, particularly when taking into account the fact that children on treatment would survive longer, resulting in accumulating costs.
Another issue being considered was whether it was feasible to treat only affected children, and not their mothers and caregivers.
"We've done a lot of the background work but now we need to have the costing exercise completed," said Abdullah. |
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