|
|
 |
Free ARV drugs for HIV+pregnant women
Adapted from SAfm broadcast on "AM-Live" with John Perlman, 07h15, 22 January 2002
|
KwaZulu-Natal Premier, Lionel Mtshali, announced today [22 January 2002] that State hospitals in KZN would provide the antiretroviral drug Nevirapine to HIV-positive pregnant women free of charge. KwaZulu-Natal is the second province in South Africa to offer the drug at no cost via provincial hospitals, the Western Cape being the first. Speaking on SAfm's morning current affairs programme, "AM-Live", Premier Mtshali told John Perlman:
"As a province, we have taken this decision based on the high prevalence of HIV infection and deaths related to HIV/AIDS in KwaZulu-Natal. We received an offer from a German pharmaceutical company to provide the drugs free of charge for five years, and the Red Cross will be joining hands with us the distribute them."
National government's programme for provision of Nervirapine to HIV-positive pregnant women has been limited to 18 test sites located across the country. Premier Mtshali said: "We need to move beyond the test sites in Durban, Pietermaritzburg and Hlabisa, across the Uthukela River and into remote areas which are deeply affected (by HIV/AIDS)."
Although the Premier could not give specific details of a programme for distribution of the drugs, he said that a schedule to enable such roll-out would be worked out.
"The roll-out is dependent on the lead taken by the Department of Health in this province," he added. "The Western Cape is going ahead and doing this and saving lives. We could not have done this sooner, though, because this offer from the German drug company only came to us in the second half of last year." |
| Was this article helpful to you? |
 ?0%???? ?0%
|
|
Back
|
|
|
|
