South Africa Approves Free Aids Drugs

The South African government announced yesterday that it would distribute free Aids medicines through the health system but it did not specify when the drugs would be made available.

The health minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, said the government still needed to put out a tender for the drugs, train healthcare workers, and identify and upgrade distribution centres, particularly in rural areas.

"There is still a long way to go," she said. "I don't want to raise false hopes, but a decision has been made. There is hope."

She claimed a national network of centres to distribute anti-retroviral drugs would be running within a year.

With nearly 5 million citizens estimated to be infected with HIV or Aids, South Africa has the world's highest number of people battling the disease, representing nearly 11% of the country's 47 million people.

President Thabo Mbeki's government has been criticised for not taking measures to tackle the Aids pandemic. Mr Mbeki and his health minister repeatedly asserted that HIV did not cause Aids and questioned the effectiveness of the anti-retroviral drugs that have saved hundreds of thousands of lives throughout the world.

Under growing pressure to make the drugs available to poor, black South Africans, the government had ordered the health ministry to draft a national plan for the distribution of anti-retroviral drugs by the end of September. The plan was only submitted to cabinet last week.

Aids activists celebrated the news of the government's intentions. "We've been working for five years to get the government to take this step. We're delighted," said Rukia Cornelius, of the Treatment Action Campaign. "The hard work starts now. We must press the government to start distributing the drugs as soon as possible. There must be no delay because people's lives are at stake."