Pretoria – Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has called for a partnership in the fight against HIV and Aids in the wake of incorrect media reports that the country has a critical shortage of anti-retroviral drugs.
On Sunday, the Minister held a special media briefing where he denied media reports that the country was experiencing extreme drug shortages, particularly fixed-dose combination (FDC) anti-retroviral drugs.
News channel eNCA broadcast a clip of an interview with a patient from the Esigodeni Clinic in KwaZulu-Natal. In the clip, the anonymous woman reported that she did not receive her antiretroviral medicines and that many people were being turned away because of a widespread shortage of medicines at public health facilities.
While there was no shortage of all adult treatment regimens - fixed dose or even single doses - there was a shortage of Abacavir, which is used to treat children.
This was due to all three suppliers of Abacavir experiencing difficulty in sourcing sufficient active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) sourced internationally to produce sufficient quantities of both the syrup and the tablets.
In addition, one supplier also suffered three batch failures which they had to investigate before the stock could be released and this took a long time.
Minister Motsoaledi said at no stage did any company report that the shortages were related to non-payment of anti-retrovirals.
Supplies of Abacavir are expected to normalise by the middle of June, with all outstanding orders fulfilled by the end of June. Suppliers are, however, continuously releasing stock on a weekly basis.
On Thursday, the Health Department said the news channel has apologised for broadcasting the story “TAC sounds alarm on shortage of ARV's”.
The Minister has welcomed the apology.
“It is therefore encouraging that the broadcaster, after conducting their own investigation into the matter, owned up to the mistake and on behalf of the Department of Health I appreciate and accept the apology,” Minister Motsoaledi said.
The clip included an interview with a Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) official.
The Minister said he considers the TAC as one of the most important partners in the fight against HIV and AIDS and appealed to them to “desist from activities that lead to misleading the media and hence the general public”.
“This has the potential to cause unnecessary panic, confusion and even desperation among those infected and affected by the disease.”
South Africa’s HIV treatment programme is one of the biggest in the world, constituting 30% of the global programme.
“… it needs maximum cooperation from all stakeholders rather than trying to score points against each other – an activity that would least help those affected and infected,” he said.
Dept to devise alternative early warning system
On Sunday the Minister explained that the department had on its website published a long list of drugs that are out of stock. The list was released as an early warning system for provinces and facilities who order drugs – this is because the department does not order drugs.
He said the list was meant to save time as then provinces and facilities would have knowledge of which companies currently have problems supplying specific drugs.
This avoids the problem of placing orders and only to discover after 14 to 42 days that the company is unable to supply the drugs.
The department on Thursday said it had learn the list was misconstrued as indicative of widespread shortage of medicines throughout the country.
“In this regard, the department has withdrawn the list and will devise an alternative early warning system to advise intended users,” said the department. – SAnew.gov.za
