Young South African Doctors Protest Government's AIDS Drug Policy

The Junior Doctors Association of South Africa announced Saturday that it will encourage it members to wear black armbands at work to protest the government's failure to dispense key AIDS drugs. The government has said the drugs remain unaffordable and that their safety has yet to be proven -- a claim disputed by AIDS activists and the medical community. "We want to show solidarity with our patients who are HIV-positive and with those who have died of AIDS," said Dr. Karl le Roux, chair of the 1,300-member association. Le Roux called for a massive AIDS awareness campaign and for the government to immediately begin distributing AIDS drugs at public hospitals to lessen the chances of mothers with HIV passing it to their babies at birth. "No honest human being can argue that [the drugs] are not effective at saving lives," Le Roux said.

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