In a message dated 5/10/00 6:27:26 PM Central Daylight Time, AOL News writes: << Subj: S. Africans With AIDS Said Refused Date: 5/10/00 6:27:26 PM Central Daylight Time From: AOL News BCC: Ahab42 S. Africans With AIDS Said Refused .c The Associated Press By MIKE COHEN CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) - AIDS activists told South African lawmakers Wednesday that hospitals have refused to treat those suffering from the disease and that drugs they did not fully understand were being tested on them. Noriri Lamathi, who was diagnosed with HIV last November, told Parliament's health committee of being sent from hospital to hospital, repeatedly informed that nothing could be done for her. ``The vast majority of people coming to hospitals are told to go home to die,'' said Zakie Achmat, a spokesman for the HIV/AIDS Treatment Action Campaign. The testimony came in a country where an estimated 10 percent of the population is infected with HIV or AIDS. Members of the action campaign said Wednesday that the high prices charged for many approved AIDS drugs make treatment unaffordable. They urged the government to pass laws to ensure the drugs become cheaper. The government has refused to make anti-retroviral drugs that can prolong AIDS sufferers' lives available through the public health system, saying it cannot afford them. Dr. Ayanda Ntsaluba, the director-general of the health department, told the committee it would cost $10 billion by the year 2010 to give the drugs to all advanced HIV sufferers. ``No country in the world, the U.S. included, could afford anti-retrovirals at current prices,'' he said. President Thabo Mbeki has questioned the safety of the widely accepted anti-AIDS drug AZT and created an international furor by questioning whether HIV causes AIDS, a view widely accepted by scientists. Achmat said his group supported the use of AZT. But, he said, it has to be made affordable. ``Essential medicines ought to be driven by social needs, not by profit,'' he said. Achmat expressed concern that controls over the testing of drugs in South Africa are too lax, and that test participants do not have side effects explained to them. ``At a conference of people living with AIDS, where 30 people were on trial, only one knew what drugs they were on,'' he said. Drug companies have insisted that they abide by strict international standards when testing drugs and say all those participating consent fully. Pharmaceutical companies also have defended high drug prices as necessary to support the research and development needed to continue producing new medicines. AP-NY-05-10-00 1926EDT Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without prior written authority of The Associated Press. Announcement: America Online has added Reuters newswires to News Profiles. To add Reuters articles to your daily news delivery, go to KW: <A HREF="aol://5862:146">News Profiles</A> and click on "Modify Your News Profiles." Then click "Edit" and add Reuters from the list on the left. To edit your profile, go to keyword <A HREF="aol://1722:NewsProfiles">NewsPro files</A>. For all of today's news, go to keyword <A HREF="aol://1722:News">News</A>. >>
S. Africans With AIDS Said Refused .c The Associated Press By MIKE COHEN CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) - AIDS activists told South African lawmakers Wednesday that hospitals have refused to treat those suffering from the disease and that drugs they did not fully understand were being tested on them. Noriri Lamathi, who was diagnosed with HIV last November, told Parliament's health committee of being sent from hospital to hospital, repeatedly informed that nothing could be done for her. ``The vast majority of people coming to hospitals are told to go home to die,'' said Zakie Achmat, a spokesman for the HIV/AIDS Treatment Action Campaign. The testimony came in a country where an estimated 10 percent of the population is infected with HIV or AIDS. Members of the action campaign said Wednesday that the high prices charged for many approved AIDS drugs make treatment unaffordable. They urged the government to pass laws to ensure the drugs become cheaper. The government has refused to make anti-retroviral drugs that can prolong AIDS sufferers' lives available through the public health system, saying it cannot afford them. Dr. Ayanda Ntsaluba, the director-general of the health department, told the committee it would cost $10 billion by the year 2010 to give the drugs to all advanced HIV sufferers. ``No country in the world, the U.S. included, could afford anti-retrovirals at current prices,'' he said. President Thabo Mbeki has questioned the safety of the widely accepted anti-AIDS drug AZT and created an international furor by questioning whether HIV causes AIDS, a view widely accepted by scientists. Achmat said his group supported the use of AZT. But, he said, it has to be made affordable. ``Essential medicines ought to be driven by social needs, not by profit,'' he said. Achmat expressed concern that controls over the testing of drugs in South Africa are too lax, and that test participants do not have side effects explained to them. ``At a conference of people living with AIDS, where 30 people were on trial, only one knew what drugs they were on,'' he said. Drug companies have insisted that they abide by strict international standards when testing drugs and say all those participating consent fully. Pharmaceutical companies also have defended high drug prices as necessary to support the research and development needed to continue producing new medicines. AP-NY-05-10-00 1926EDT Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without prior written authority of The Associated Press. Announcement: America Online has added Reuters newswires to News Profiles. To add Reuters articles to your daily news delivery, go to KW: <A HREF="aol://5862:146">News Profiles</A> and click on "Modify Your News Profiles." Then click "Edit" and add Reuters from the list on the left. To edit your profile, go to keyword <A HREF="aol://1722:NewsProfiles">NewsProfiles</A>. For all of today's news, go to keyword <A HREF="aol://1722:News">News</A>.
