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Zimbabwe
AIDS activists debate more militant tactics for ARV drug access
Carole
Gombakomba, VOA News
October 16, 2006
http://www.voanews.com/english/Africa/Zimbabwe/2006-10-16-voa48.cfm
Members of one
of Zimbabwe's leading anti-AIDS activist groups are divided over
how to express their frustration at chronic - and more recently,
critical - shortages of anti-retroviral drugs, with a militant contingent
proposing a "die-in" demonstration.
Benjamin Mazhindu,
chairman of the Zimbabwe
National Network of People Living With HIV-AIDS, or ZNNP+, said
he hoped negotiations with the Ministry of Health will improve matters.
But ministry's AIDS chief has been quoted as saying official programs
to dispense ARVs are now running on a week-to-week basis. The Independent
paper said the official warned that without replenishment, supplies
of ARVs could run out.
Ministry officials
say drug shortages stem from shortages of hard currency, but other
reports have suggested that the closure of a plant at Varichem,
the country's only domestic producer of ARVs, is the main reason
for the tightening of supplies.
But Varichem
Marketing Director Christopher Chitemerere said the production unit
has been closed for renovations as part of preparations for a World
Health Organization assessment, and that a secondary plant has maintained
ARV output levels.
According to
United Nations figures, some 1.7 million Zimbabweans are living
with HIV-AIDS, while about 300,000 need ARV treatment. But only
40,000 can obtain it.
AIDS activist
Mazhindu told reporter Carole Gombakomba that his organization is
very unhappy about ARV shortages, but he does not agree with the
proposal by some of his co-activists to organize a "die-in" demonstration
to dramatize the situation.
Mutare-based
HIV-AIDS activist Tapiwa Kujinga said that while shortages of ARVs
are becoming critical, demonstrations may not help improve things.
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