[Ip-health] FW: SA Finance Minister slams calls for AIDS drugs

[Kate Krauss]

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From: Richard Jefferys <richard.jefferys@VERIZON.NET>
Reply-To: Healthgap List <HEALTHGAP@CritPath.Org>
Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2003 15:03:04 -0500
To: HEALTHGAP@CritPath.Org
Subject: [HEALTHGAP] [news] SA Finance Minister slams calls for AIDS drugs

http://www.bday.co.za/bday/content/direct/1,3523,1308722-6078-0,00.html

Manuel joins in antiretroviral scepticism
Minister slams calls for AIDS drugs

CAPE TOWN Finance Minister Trevor Manuel last night dismissed as "a lot
of voodoo" claims about the effectiveness of antiretrovirals in the
treatment of HIV/AIDS and said spending government money on them was "a
waste of very limited resources".

Summing up debate on the Appropriation Bill for the national budget, he
said the notion that it was "antiretrovirals or bust is bunkum".
Opposition MPs were critical of the budget's failure to provide for
HIV/AIDS.

Manuel said that the steadfast adherence to antiretrovirals was a
"position that can only be taken by pharmaceutical companies. It is not
supported by fact."

"The more people support this kind of nonsense, the more we will end up
in difficulty. There is no need to polarise society on this issue. We
need to recognise that medically appropriate treatment will cover a
range of issues. But the bulk of our investment has to be in the
prevention regime, because you can put people on antiretrovirals but it
is not going to cure them. It might at times and in circumstances arrest
the growth of the disease, but it does not cure."

Manuel said KwaZulu-Natal premier Lionel Mtshali should not spend money
on a roll out of antiretrovirals, but should rather spend it on poverty
relief and school building among other things . He said that Mtshali
should not "waste those very limited resources in an exceedingly poor
province".

Meanwhile, the rift between government and the Treatment Action Campaign
(TAC) deepened further yesterday after Health Minister Manto
Tshabalala-Msimang suggested that herbal remedies were a better option
than antiretrovirals.

She has been under fire in recent weeks for seeking the advice of
HIV/AIDS dissident Roberto Giraldo on nutrition. Giraldo denies the link
between the HI virus and AIDS. Tshabalala-Msimang concluded a briefing
by her department to Parliament's health committee with gushing praise
for Giraldo and the statement that "nutrition should be the legacy
because it is so critical" in the fight against the advance of HIV into
AIDS.

TAC members walked out of the meeting saying that the minister's words
were "disgusting" and plan to launch a civil disobedience campaign on
Friday.

Tshabalala-Msimang, mentioning "garlic, lemon, olive oil and African
potatoes", said that nutrition was affordable, unlike antiretroviral
drugs which were expensive. "It is not expensive, it is food," she said,
adding that while there was a link between HIV and AIDS there were
things other than antiretrovirals which slowed the onset of AIDS.

TAC spokeswoman Sipho Mthathi said: "This is the last time that she will
be able to speak on a public platform without disruption and expressions
of the anger of the people unless she commits publicly to a campaign of
antiretroviral treatment for HIV/AIDS sufferers."

Mthathi said Tshabalala-Msimang's statements were not only "astonishing"
but were also an indictment of her commitment to responding to the
impact of HIV/AIDS and the crisis it imposed on communities as a whole.
"She never came anywhere near to responding in a way which recognises
the crisis and the need to be serious about the epidemic. The debate is
not about the benefits of nutrition but about saving the lives of people
who do not have the strength to cook a meal. We want antiretroviral
treatment which gives them their lives back."

Mar 19 2003 07:05:37:000AM Linda Ensor and Wyndham Hartley Business Day
1st Edition