ARV moratorium in Free State was never lifted ‘ TAC
‘The issue of the moratorium was never lifted. Never! We have been told that people will only be initiated from the first of April’, said TAC spokesperson in the Free State, Sello Mokhaliphi.
But the provincial department of health insists that the moratorium has been lifted, a number of new patients have been provided with ARVs.
‘We have started 556 patients this month’, said Prof. Pax Ramela, the Head of the Department of Health in the Free State.
Sana has been on the waiting list since last October, a month before the controversial moratorium was imposed. Her CD 4 count at the time stood at 195, an indication of a desperate need for ARV’s. Her viral load was recorded at 250 000. She is on the waiting list with her 2 year old son. ‘I’ve been going to Pelonomi (Hospital), it’s been the same. I’ve been asking the sister when I am likely to get treatment. The sister would say, ‘probably in April, even then, only if there are funds’. Now I am ill. I want treatment. If I don’t hear anything different after April, I will then give up’, she said.
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