South Africa's AIDS Scourge as Disgraceful as Apartheid: Church

The South African government's lack of action to provide AIDS drugs is as disgraceful as apartheid, Anglican Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane told reporters Tuesday in Cape Town. "The [health] minister is quite right when she says the AIDS pandemic is the responsibility of every government department, and I believe it is time her fellow ministers accepted responsibility for what has become a world disgrace as serious as apartheid," he said. Ndungane was reacting to a recent threat by the Medicines Control Council to ban nevirapine, used to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission. "How can our government not acknowledge that nevirapine is recommended in dozens of countries in the world, including our own, as a safe chronic medication?" Ndungane asked. The government is also stalling in announcing a national treatment program. "The fact that 600 people are dying daily is a serious indictment on our elected government and leaves the impression that it doesn't care whether we live or die," said Ndungane. UNAIDS estimates an even higher mortality, with 360,000 AIDS-related deaths in 2001 -- nearly 1,000 deaths per day.

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