ARV Moratorium had devastating effects in Free State

Lehlohonolo Mathetsa’€™s husband died on the 18th of February due to an AIDS related illness. He had been on the ARV waiting list since October, when his CD 4 count was only 59. ‘€œAs he was ill, they gave him tablets called Bactrim. He was told there were no drugs’€, said Mathetsa.

Evelyn has a five year old daughter who has been on ARVs since 2004. ‘€œThey (doctors) said the child was resistant to the treatment she had always been taking. They prescribed different medicines for her. When I got to the dispensary, they told me the third drug was not available’€, said Evelyn.

Non-governmental organisations in the Free State believe that many AIDS patients died as a result of the moratorium. They put the blame on the provincial government. ‘€œIn the Free State, we have been losing about 30 people a day because of this shortage of drugs’€, said Sello Mokhaliphi, the Free State spokesperson of the Treatment Action Campaign.      

Author

  • Health-e News

    Health-e News is South Africa's dedicated health news service and home to OurHealth citizen journalism. Follow us on Twitter @HealtheNews

    View all posts

Free to Share

Creative Commons License

Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.


Stay in the loop

We love that you love visiting our site. Our content is free, but to continue reading, please register.

Newsletter Subscription

Be in the know with our free weekly newsletter. We deliver a round-up of our top stories and insightful reads from across the web.

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Enable Notifications OK No thanks