Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2002. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date. Associated Press - October 15, 2002
Latif Gueye "committed extremely serious errors," President Abdoulaye Wade said on national television, announcing Mr. Gueye's removal from Africa helps Africa.
"I think that it is unfortunate that medicine meant for African AIDS patients is diverted and sold at higher prices in Europe," Mr. Wade said in his announcement Monday night.
Fifty-one countries are members of Africa Helps Africa, an intergovernmental humanitarian agency. A senior government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that as head of the agency, Mr. Gueye was responsible for finding cheap drugs for Senegalese infected with the HIV virus that causes AIDS.
The official said Mr. Gueye allegedly sold the AIDS drugs in Europe, and that some were found in Holland and Germany.
Newspapers reported Tuesday that Mr. Gueye denied the allegations. His secretary said he planned to hold a press conference Tuesday afternoon.
Earlier this month, Dutch health authorities scrambled to recover illegally imported AIDS medication. Around 36,000 boxes of Combivir and Epivir, intended for sale at sharply reduced prices in Africa, ended up on pharmacy shelves in the Netherlands and Germany, said Raymond Salet, a spokesman for the Netherlands General Health Inspection Service.
Several multinational pharmaceutical companies have begun cutting prices on HIV medication in AIDS-ravaged Africa after criticism that they were making windfall profits at the expense of the poor. A box of 60 Combivir tablets that costs around €90 ($88) in Africa can be sold in Europe for €400 ($392).
In London, a spokesman for pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline PLC said they are cooperating with a European-based inquiry into Africa-bound antiretroviral drugs that were redirected to Europe.
"We are cooperating with the regulatory authorities, mainly the Dutch authorities because they took the lead," the spokesman said.
Senegal has managed to avoid the worst of the AIDS epidemic gripping Africa. On a continent that accounts for more than 70% of the world's 36 million people living with the AIDS virus, and where the infection rate in many nations runs in double digits, Senegal's HIV rate is less than 2%.
Health officials believe the West African country has been shielded in part by widely held cultural and religious values that limit sex to marriage.
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