South Africa labor group to seek cheap AIDS drugs

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) -- South Africa's giant labor federation COSATU said on Wednesday it would lobby international pharmaceutical companies to cut prices of anti-AIDS drugs now beyond the reach of many poor Africans.

In a statement issued after a meeting of its executive committee (EXCO), the 1.8 million-strong COSATU said it would back a campaign for reduced prices launched by a coalition of South African anti-AIDS groups.

"EXCO expressed its sympathies and support for a campaign that would force pharmaceutical companies to drop the price of medication," it said in the statement.

"We make the call, for the sake of human kind, for pharmaceutical companies to drastically reduce the price of medicines," COSATU general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi told a news conference.

Vavi said COSATU would also enlist the support of employers such as the giant South African Breweries in an awareness campaign against HIV and AIDS.

"This strategy and link is important in the fight against HIV/AIDS. COSATU will step up its campaign for awareness, education and change of behavior as well as abstention from sex or use of condoms," Vavi added.

The COSATU stance is in wide contrast to government policy on AIDS which has been shrouded in controversy since President Thabo Mbeki questioned both the orthodox scientific view that HIV causes AIDS and the efficacy of the anti-AIDS drug AZT, first approved back in 1987.

South Africa has one of the world's fastest spreading HIV-AIDS epidemics, with 1,700 new infections daily adding to 4.3 million people already infected with the virus out of a population of 43 million.

Up to 600,000 babies are born worldwide each year with the virus -- 1,800 a day. Up to 90 percent of these cases are in the developing world and experts predict that without HIV drugs, child mortality rates in some African countries will double by the year 2010.

Drugs such as Glaxo Wellcome's zidovudine, or AZT, have successfully reduced the number of women infecting their unborn children in industrialized countries but the treatments are expensive and difficult to administer in poorer countries.

The price of various so-called combination therapies of drugs, which can substantially prolong the lives of HIV patients, range between $10,000 and $15,000 each year per patient.

Drug companies are expected to slash those prices to between $1,000 and $2,000 per nation to needy nations.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU)

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