E-drug: MSF open letter to S. African govt for a national treatment plan
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Open Letter to the South African Government from M�decins Sans Fronti�res
12 February 2003
President of the Republic of South Africa
Pretoria
Fax: 012 3238246
Mr A. Erwin; Minister of Trade and Industry; Fax: 012 3227851
Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), South Africa info@tac.org.za
Dear Sir,
The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and thousands of South Africans are
mobilising on 14 February in Cape Town to demand a national HIV/AIDS
prevention and treatment plan that includes antiretroviral (ARV) therapy for
all people in South Africa who need it. M�decins Sans Fronti�res (MSF) joins
them to express our profound disappointment that the South African
government has failed to do so to date, and to ask you to announce by the
end of February a comprehensive HIV/AIDS treatment plan that includes ARV
treatment.
For the past four years, MSF has witnessed first-hand the daily devastation
caused by the AIDS epidemic in South Africa and the extraordinary clinical
benefits-and hope-that the availability of ARV treatment brings to the
community. Our work in Khayelitsha in the Western Cape, where we
provide ARV treatment for nearly 350 people with AIDS, clearly
demonstrates the
feasibility of ARV treatment in resource-poor settings; there is no longer
any question that it is possible. Our new programme in a rural remote
setting in the Eastern Cape explores the specific challenges of providing
ARV treatment, building on our experience with similar programmes in other
rural settings elsewhere in Africa. But, despite their success, such
programmes cannot become a substitute for what is ultimately the
responsibility of the South African government.
MSF supports people living with HIV/AIDS in South Africa and around the
world in their fight to have the same opportunity as people in wealthy
countries to live longer, healthier lives by having access to ARV treatment.
We have fought to support measures that will ensure that governments,
including the South African government, have every available tool to ensure
they can fulfil their right and obligation to care for the health of their
citizens. As you know, MSF advocates strongly to ensure that public health
needs take priority over the protection of private intellectual property
rights. Along with other organisations, we were instrumental in securing
the adoption of the historic World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial
Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health by all member states in
Doha, and we have continued to advocate that it be implemented in good faith
by all member states. We are deeply concerned about the current state of
WTO negotiations about paragraph 6 of the Doha Declaration and are dismayed
at the position South Africa has taken, which would effectively create two
classes of WTO members, one that can make full use of compulsory licensing
to promote access to medicines, and another (the poorest countries), which
will be seriously hampered in their efforts to do so. This represents a
major backtracking on the Doha Declaration and we urge you to abandon this
position immediately.
In South Africa in 2001, MSF began demonstrating in Khayelitsha that it is
possible to utilise low-cost quality generic ARVs to provide affordable
treatment. In April of that same year, 39 pharmaceutical companies attempted
to block the government's right to incorporate provisions in the Medicines
and Related Substances Control Act that would allow South Africans access to
low-cost ARVs. MSF collected 250,000 signatures from around the world, which
were sent directly to all pharmaceutical companies implicated, demanding
that they drop the case. We now join TAC and thousands of other South
Africans in urging the South African government to make use of provisions,
such as compulsory licensing, and to promote local production to guarantee
generic competition and access to the least expensive quality ARVs.
Today, five million South Africans are infected with HIV, and nearly 1,000
are dying every day of AIDS-related complications. The 600,000 South
Africans who clinically require ARV treatment now to stay alive do not have
time to wait. Their families do not have time to wait. There can be no
excuses for further delays.
We urge you to act now and to announce before end of February a national
HIV/AIDS treatment plan.
Sincerely,
Dr Morten Rostrup
President
M�decins Sans Fronti�res International Council
Tel: +41 228498400
e-mail: msf-international-gva@geneva.msf.org
Dr. Eric Goemaere
Head of Mission
MSF South Africa
PO Box 27401
Rhine Road, 8050
Cape Town, South Africa
Tel : 021 3645490
Fax : 021 3617051
e-mail: msf.sa@mweb.co.za
This letter is being co-signed by the general directors of the different MSF
sections and country co-ordinators of field projects throughout the world
and sent to SA embassies and/or high commissioners before the march for a
national HIV/AIDS treatment plan of February 14 in Cape Town.
For more information, contact Marta Darder, MSF South Africa,
Tel +27 21 3645490, martad@xsinet.co.za.
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