Health 
Premier Morkel calls for co-operation with AIDS drug companies

Speaking in Cape Town, Morkel called upon the South African Government to "heed the words of the vast majority of experts, who with one voice have called for an end to academic debates about the origins of AIDS and instead to focus on the problem". According to Morkel, "We are living in desperate times. We are playing the proverbial fiddle while Rome burns. Every month, 5000 babies are born into the world unnecessarily infected with HIV, most of whom are being born right here in South Africa". 

"As Government, we need to get off our pedestals and accept responsibility for what we can deliver. Government does carry an enormous load of responsibility. Sure, we must concentrate our efforts on gaining cost-effective access to drugs such as antiretroviral agents, but this cannot be done by creating tensions in relationships with and distancing ourselves from large international pharmaceutical firms. We need to recognise their considerable financial investment in solving the problem and acknowledge the positive role they are playing in combating the disease. Up to this point in time, nobody in government seems to have any idea as to how to begin cooperating with the drugs companies with the objective of lowering the cost of medicines.

"Right here in the Western Cape, we have taken a more pragmatic view. In a pilot project, at provincial level, we have authorised the treatment of pregnant women in clinics with antiretroviral agents. In the full knowledge that such treatment as AZT is costly and not 100% effective, we are focusing on the upside, where we could lower the mother-to-child transmission risk by 66%. That will directly impact on AIDS statistics in the foreseeable future. Costly, yes, but this is a dose of medicine which we cannot avoid. We owe it to our children and their children. The knowledge we are gaining from this programme belongs to all and we will share our findings fully with any province, or with anywhere else in the world for that matter. "At the rate we are going in South Africa, hard financial data from the World Bank suggests we could be facing a 20% drop in national wealth over the next 10 years. With poverty levels as high as they are at present, we have to invest all our resources in stopping the AIDS pandemic right now to avoid economic collapse in the future.

"Government also carries an enormous load of social responsibility. We must recognise not only the immense role of poverty in supporting the spread of HIV but also the violation of the basic human rights of thousands of South African women who are infected by men who still insist on their traditional ways of life. These ancient traditions are making a mockery of the African Renaissance dream.

"The Government of the Western Cape is determined to slow the AIDS pandemic in this Province. We will do this by leveraging to the maximum provincial budgets and also our pool of independent-thinkers in the fields of public health, education and poverty relief and private enterprise. 

"In the Western Cape, we are determined to break the logjam in AIDS-related thinking", added Morkel.

Source: Office of the Premier, Western Cape, S.A. 

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