S. Africans Welcome AIDS Drug, but Decry Delays

AIDS sufferers and activists welcomed a breakthrough step toward antiretroviral treatment for all South Africans, but said delays leading up to it had cost lives.

Long criticized for failing to tackle the world’s highest AIDS caseload, President Thabo Mbeki’s government bowed to a growing clamor for drug treatment Friday, saying it aimed to draw up a plan by the end of September for national distribution of antiretroviral drugs that can fight AIDS.

“It’s wonderful news,” said Sibongile Mafata, coordinator of the only hospice in the sprawling Soweto township near Johannesburg. At the hospice, funded by donations, about 80% to 90% of the 400 people being treated have HIV/AIDS.

Celebrating National Women’s Day in the country’s administrative capital, Pretoria, Marion Cloete of Botshabelo Community Development Trust hailed the news, saying: “We are ecstatic. Especially for poor people ... it really means the difference between living and dying.”

AIDS activists and the government’s political opposition also welcomed the announcement but remembered those for whom any rollout of antiretroviral treatment will come too late. An estimated 4.7 million people in the country are HIV-positive, and more than half a million people with AIDS are believed to have died.

The government has cited the high cost, side effects and lack of health care infrastructure to monitor treatment as reasons for delaying access to the drugs, which are currently confined to mothers and babies, a few foreign-funded efforts and those who can afford private treatment.

“It’s right, but it’s a little bit too late,” Mapule Malikene of Soshanguve said at the Pretoria women’s rally.

The opposition Democratic Alliance agreed.

The Treatment Action Campaign, which has spearheaded demands for universal treatment, said it would call off a campaign of civil disobedience.

The campaign also said it would reconsider pending litigation, which includes charges of culpable homicide against two Cabinet ministers for failing to prevent the deaths of friends and family by refusing universal access to AIDS drugs.

Medical aid organization Doctors Without Borders hailed the government’s turnaround.

“This is extremely good news, and we are definitely celebrating today with all people affected by HIV/AIDS in South Africa,” said Dr. Eric Goemaere, head of the medical mission in South Africa.