SA should produce Aids drugs – activist ‘Country needs to follow India, Brazil in manufacturing medication’
WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 3 2016
SOUTH Africa should be producing its own antiretroviral medication, a leading HIV/Aids activist has said in Durban. “It costs about R90 a person on ARVs every month, and if you look at that in the long term, that is expensive,” said Patrick Mdletshe, the chairman of the KwaZulu-Natal Civil Society Forum and deputy chairman of the KZN Council on Aids.
“South Africa needs to ask itself about producing treatment in the country.
“We need to follow India and Brazil (which produce their own medication), as we cannot afford to buy medication,” he said.
There are about 6.7 million South Africans living with HIV/Aids, Mdletshe said.
He was speaking at the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government and Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) Aids business dinner at the Greyville Conference Centre on Thursday night.
South Africa buys most of its ARV medication from India, Mdletshe said later.
While the country should be looking at manufacturing ARVs locally, Mdletshe said he was very mindful of the intellectual property issues. However, it was possible to manufacture locally under a licence.
Some provinces often ran short of supplies, he said.
“We should be looking at self-sufficiency. We would also be creating jobs here.”
The dinner was one of the key gatherings ahead of the 21st International Aids Conference that will be held at Durban’s Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre in July, when some 20 000 delegates will descend on the city.
It will be the second time that Durban has hosted the conference.
With more than 1.4 million people on ARVs in the province, Mdletshe said: “KZN is in the serious business of saving people’s lives.”
However, the challenge was the spread of HIV/Aids among young people.
“We won’t win this war without good partners like the business sector,” he said.
Zeph Ndlovu, the DCCI’s president, assured Premier Senzo Mchunu, who is also the chairman of the KZN Council on Aids, that the chamber had programmes aimed at mobilising its members to be part of the government’s action plan to fight HIV/Aids.
“The pandemic poses a major threat to the stability of the city’s economy. It is for this reason that we urge our members to allocate resources to fight this scourge,” he said.
The premier said the province had turned the corner and was running the biggest treatment programme the world had ever seen.
Major achievements had been notched up, including the reduction of mother-tochild transmission from 22 percent in 2008 to 1.3 percent in 2014; an improvement of life expectancy from 54 years to 60 years; and a reduction in reported HIV/Aids-related deaths from 67 429 in 2008/09 to 54 337 in 2010/11.
All HIV-positive pregnant women also received lifelong treatment, he said.
While the July conference would be an opportunity to tell the world about the country’s successes, it also represented a platform to strengthen the efforts in the fight against the pandemic.
The five-day International Aids Conference opens on July 18, Nelson Mandela’s birthday.
The premier recalled that Mandela used his influence at the first International Aids Conference in 2000 to point out the neverending arguments were a distraction from the real life-and-death issues in the world.
THE PANDEMIC POSES A MAJOR THREAT TO THE STABILITY OF THE CITY’S ECONOMY. WE URGE OUR MEMBERS TO ALLOCATE RESOURCES TO FIGHT THIS SCOURGE