No ARV shortage – Health Ministry
JOBURG - An independent civil society consortium has indicated that one in five South African clinics are running short of life-saving HIV/Aids drugs, affecting nearly half a million people.
The Stop Stock Outs Project found that staff at 20% of the state health facilities questioned had reported a shortage of antiretroviral drugs in the past three months. The consortium monitors and speaks out about medicine stock outs and shortages.
About six million people in South Africa are infected with the HIV virus, which constitutes more than 10% of the population. With around two and a half million people taking antiretroviral drugs daily, the country has one of the world’s highest HIV/Aids caseloads.
However, Ministry of Health spokesperson Joe Maila refuted claims by the report and labelled it “an extreme exaggeration of reality”. Maila said the department had a monitoring system which indicated otherwise. “To suggest that the country is in crisis is misleading,” he said.
“When you run such a large-scale programme, you’re most likely to experience some issues, but to suggest a health crisis is exaggerated,” said Maila.
The Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Hospital’s spokesperson Lungiswa Mvumvu said the Parktown-based hospital did not experience any shortages. “Our hospital has not been affected by any shortages of ARV drugs,” she said.
On week ending 22 November, North Eastern Tribune reported about two employees of the Esselen Street Clinic in Hillbrow, who were arrested for stealing and selling antiretroviral drugs to patients in the streets of Johannesburg’s CBD.
