Panafrican News Agency - February 24, 1999
Maureen Isaacson, PANA Correspondent
The minister was speaking in Parliament last week where she offered alarming statistics which she said were a concern for the South African government. She said that at least one in three pregnant women in KwaZulu Natal was infected with AIDS. "About 70 percent of the cases of AIDS in the world are in sub-Saharan Africa, but world research into a vaccine is not into the type of virus found in sub-Saharan Africa," she said.
Dlamini-Zuma's decision not to provide the costly AZT treatment to pregnant women has been a source of great controversy.
She said she would not back down on this position, as only 30 percent of women passed on the HIV infection through the womb, and AZT would only reduce that by half.
She said the drug would prevent only 15 percent of those treated from passing on the virus to their infants, and health care - like a business - had to look at getting the best return on its investments.
"It would be unwise for any government to shift resources away from prevention to waiting while women get infected," she said.
South Africa's Medical Research Council estimated last year that it would cost about 5,000 rands per baby to prevent infection of those born to HIV-positive mothers -- but only if South Africa had a better infrastructure than it does and more health workers.
"We have to prioritise, to look at where the best return is, and that lies in prevention," said Dlamini-Zuma. She said her department had made great strides against the AIDS epidemic, and had enlisted the help of Deputy President Thabo Mbeki in the awareness campaigns.
But there will be exceptions and the Western Cape Province is one of them. In his opening address to the provincial legislature on Friday, Premier Gerald Morkel said pregnant women with HIV/AIDS in the Western Cape will receive the AZT drug on a limited scale.
He said his administration had managed to acquire the drug at a greatly reduced cost - more than 60 percent below its normal price - and this had allowed the provincial health department to administer the drug for the first time.
"AZT greatly reduces the possibility of transferring HIV to an unborn child from an infected mother," Morkel said.
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