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TAC sets up treatment project
Jo-Anne Smetherham. 09 September 2003. Cape Times. Republished courtesy of Independent Newspapers (Pty) Ltd.
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The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) plans to provide anti-AIDS drugs to 1 000 people by the end of next year and has asked members of the public to help fund them.
The activist group has set up what it calls a "treatment project", with separate administration and finances. The project has enough money to pay for anti-retrovirals for 25 people and is giving the drugs to 11 people.
"We believe the time has come for civil society to help the government," TAC chairperson Zackie Achmat said, referring to the government's plan to put a national anti-retroviral programme in place.
"This is the challenge we want to make to every ordinary South African. We want to raise as much money as possible to save as many lives as possible.
"We are asking you to give R50 every month to save people's lives."
The costs of drugs, doctor's appointments, tests and counselling are expected to come to R500 a month for each person. People will be partly or entirely funded, depending on their income.
For every TAC activist given anti-retrovirals, someone who is not part of the organisation will get the drugs.
"It's made a hell of a difference. I'm feeling on top of the mountain," said John Vollenhoven of Atlantis. Known to friends as "Uncle John", Vollenhoven has been taking anti-retrovirals as part of the TAC treatment project for over two months.
"As a member of a support group, I have seen how desperate people are for the drugs. One lady has four children - we buried her 14 days ago. She had to choose between paying for drugs and money for her children.
"My wife and kids have started loving me again because I am not sick any more. Please, people out there, support us."
Meanwhile, Achmat has announced that he began taking anti-retrovirals on Thursday - and that the only serious side effect has been "a really bad headache". He is taking Triamune, a combination of three generic anti-retrovirals, in the morning and two separate pills in the evening. The drug omitted in the evening dose, nevirapine, can cause liver damage.
If liver damage is ruled out in his case, Achmat will take Triamune morning and evening.
The Medicines Control Council has not registered the drug in South Africa and has granted Achmat special permission to use it. It costs R300 a month, whereas the three separate drugs cost R800.
"I feel very light-headed. I feel high. I don't know if that is the effect of the drugs," he said. "Anti-retrovirals are what will keep me alive for the next 20 years. I hope to witness all the corruption scandals in the country, the registration of a basic income grant - and not to see any extra terms (for the president)."
The TAC is a founder member of the Generic Anti-retroviral Procurement Project, a non-profit company being set up by 19 groups that provide anti-retrovirals, to buy generic drugs. Once the project was registered, the TAC would buy drugs through it, Achmat said.
The TAC has filed a complaint with the Competitions Commission against drug companies Boehringer Ingelheim and GlaxoSmithKline for "excessive pricing" of some anti-AIDS drugs. The commission has until next Friday to refer the matter to the Competitions Tribunal.
If it failed to do so, the TAC would refer it to the tribunal, requesting an interdict against the prices charged, Achmat said. |
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