‘Drop doctor’s misconduct charges’ – Rudasa
Misconduct charges against the Manguzi doctor who gave extra antiretroviral medicine to his pregnant HIV positive patients to prevent them from infecting their babies should be dropped immediately, the Rural Doctors Association of SA said yesterday.
Meanwhile, his colleagues described Dr Colin Pfaff as an ‘inspiration’ and a perfect example of the innovative ‘Business Unusual’ service delivery President Mbeki called for in his State of the Nation speech on Friday.
A week ago, Pfaff was sent a letter from the Manguzi Hospital CEO asking him to respond to the charge that he ‘wilfully and unlawfully without prior permission of (his) superiors rolled out [Prevention of Mother-to-child HIV treatment] dual therapy to the pregnant mothers and newborns’.
Dual therapy means treating pregnant women with two ARVs, not just nevirapine. The Western Cape has been using dual therapy since 2004 and only about 8% of mothers with HIV now pass the virus on to their babies. However, in this province over 20% of mothers with HIV infect their babies.
Pfaff’s lawyer, S’kumbuzo Maphumulo from the AIDS Law Project, wrote to the hospital and explained that providing dual therapy was not unlawful as it was now government policy and asked that the department specify the charges Pfaff was facing.
Maphumulo gave the department until Friday to respond and it was hoped that the department would drop the charges.
But on Friday, KwaZulu-Natal health spokesperson Leon Mbangwa said: ‘(Pfaff) has contravened policy. We are not against dual therapy treatment for HIV-positive babies, but it is not something that has been implemented yet. We have not yet budgeted for it and we do not have the capacity yet for it.’
However, Pfaff had raised funds from international donors to supply his patients with the additional antiretroviral drug, AZT. In addition, say his colleagues, hospitals in the entire Mkhanyakude district have the capacity to provide dual therapy.
‘Colin raised the money through the Manguzi Mission fund and it was a donation for the patients not the hospital,’ said Dr Victor Fredlund, head of medicine at nearby Mseleni Hospital.
While Pfaff has been advised by his lawyer not to comment on the case, yesterday Fredlund wrote to the head of HIV/AIDS in the province, Dr Sandile Buthelezi, to express his support for Pfaff.
‘In 2006 our Nevirapine programme was reaching nearly all pregnant mothers. We had demonstrated capacity to deliver. Yet still more than 100 babies a month were being born infected with the virus and all scientific literature (and Western Cape province experience) suggested that we could further reduce the transmission to a quarter of that, saving 75 or more babies a month, by introducing AZT during pregnancy!’ Fredlund told Buthelezi.
‘If I had believed that the department could take so long to implement what is its stated objective I too would have sought a cooperative venture with an NGO and the private sector to deliver this service and if today you tell me that it is still many months before we can have AZT then I will still make those arrangements!’ he added.
Fredlund said Pfaff had widespread support from healthworkers countrywide for his innovative ‘Business Unusual’ approach.
Meanwhile, Rudasa urged the health department to roll out dual therapy as fast as possible, and asked it why Pfaff’s ‘attempt to find solutions to the implementation of dual therapy’ had been ‘undermined and seen as misconduct’.
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