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South Africa says AIDS drugs on track despite critics

Posted on: Thursday, 8 September 2005, 09:48 CDT

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - South Africa's anti-AIDS drugs program is on track but the government does not have the resources to adequately monitor and evaluate the campaign, a top official said on Thursday.

South Africa is the country hardest hit by the AIDS pandemic with more than 5 million of its 45 million population believed to be infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

AIDS activists have criticized President Thabo Mbeki's government for its response to the epidemic, saying the roll-out of publicly funded AIDS drugs has moved too slowly since the program was introduced last year.

Thami Mseleku, director-general in the department of health, said so far 61,000 people were on government anti-retroviral drugs, up from 42,000 in early May and over the 53,000 target South Africa set for the first year of the program.

"In relation to our targets we have met the first set of targets and we are now looking at quality improvement targets," he told reporters in Cape Town.

"We are on track with regard to ensuring that our sites that are supposed to be spread all over (the country), at least for access, are in place."

Mbeki's government resisted introducing the publicly funded ARV program but bowed to pressure in late 2003.

Analysts say the roll-out has been hampered by a shortage of affordable drugs and poor capacity in the state health sector, as well as continued questions about political commitment.

Mseleku said the department did not have any data on how many of the 61,000 people who started the program were still taking ARVs. "We can't say that they are still on the program, that is still a ongoing program of action -- strengthening our systems to ensure that we follow up on that," he said.

Individuals taking the life-prolonging drugs have to keep up with the medication for the rest of their lives.

Mark Heywood of AIDS lobby group Treatment Action Campaign said the number of people on the program remained too low.

"We are still of the view that the number of people being treated is growing too slowly and it is nowhere near matching the number of people that need treatment, and that is about half a million people," he said.

Source: REUTERS

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