DURBAN ‘ Government is considering amending the Patent Act and regulating the private sector to ensure that antiretroviral treatment is affordable and private patients are no longer dumped on the state.
This was revealed last night (tues) by Deputy President Baleka Mbete at the opening of the fourth South African HIV/AIDS conference.
‘By January 2009, 695 293 people were on antiretroviral treatment. But we are only treating about half the people who need treatment,’ said Mbete. ‘But at current prices, antiretroviral drugs are not affordable.’
‘We will do everything we can to ensure that medicine is affordable,’ stressed Mbete, adding that ‘political will and financial support are key to any success’.
Meanwhile, 16-year-old Luyanda Ngcobo, who was born with HIV, appealed to be treated ‘just like a normal teenager’.
The slight teen, who first got sick at the age of five, started antiretroviral medicine in 2002.
‘I’m well. I’m doing very well at school,’ said Ngcobo, who lives with his HIV counsellor mother in Nyanga in Cape Town.
Ngcobo, together with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, delivered their speeches in memory of Nkosi Johnson, the 13-year-old boy who died of AIDS after addressing the Durban international AIDS conference in 2000.
In marked contrast to 2000, when then-president Thabo Mbeki snubbed Johnson by walking out during his speech, Mbete embraced Ngcobo and described him as ‘a future leader’.
The delighted youngster told the conference that he wouldn’t wash his hand for a week because Mbete had shaken it.
Meanwhile, Tutu thanked government ‘because now at least we have orthodox views on HIV and AIDS’.
‘We have the largest HIV programme in the world but we still have children born with HIV because of mother-to-child infection. We have families headed up by children. Imagine an 11-year-old in charge of a family. People are talking about 1 000 people dying a day from AIDS. That is the Wilderness,’ said Tutu.
In a veiled reference to the Dalai Lama being denied a visa to visit South Africa, Tutu said he had been ‘shattered’ by ‘recent events’ and paid tribute to Health Minister Barbara Hogan for her stance.
Hogan, who is on official business in China, will close the conference on Friday.
The conference theme is ‘scaling up for success’, and conference chairperson Professor Linda-Gail Bekker said she hoped discussions would be ‘very practical’.
‘The new National Strategic Plan on HIV/AIDS is a significant movement in the right direction, but we have to address implementation and scale up our campaigns to see the number of new infections rolls back,’ said Bekker.
With over 4 100 delegates from 52 countries, the conference is the biggest yet. ‘ Health-e News Service.
