Saturday Morning News

AIDS Drugs Still Largely Inaccessible in South Africa

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: AIDS researchers say what they believe would be a remedy to prevent the spread of HIV from mothers to breast-fed babies appears to be a double-edged sword. "The New York Times" is reporting that their findings show a certain drug regimen can prevent the spread during pregnancy and childbirth. However, the protection does not last as long as expected, plus it can leave children more susceptible to infection from breast milk.

The spread of AIDS in South Africa has reached epidemic proportions, and some in the U.S. are trying to lend a hand.

Here's CNN's medical correspondent Christie Feig (ph).

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TIM EWART, ITN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It is an epidemic without mercy and apparently without end. At this hospital in Pretoria, a quarter of the newborn babies are now HIV-positive.

CHILDREN (singing): No one can touch (ph) me, no one...

EWART: The luckiest will be well cared for, but success here is measured only by postponing the inevitable.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If we intervene the way we do with care, with medical nursing, socioeconomic care, lots of love and care, these children will go on for two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. That's our success story.

EWART: Elvis, who's 2, has full-blown AIDS and may live another 18 months. By then, South Africa's death toll from AIDS will be far beyond the current 700 a day.

In impoverished communities like the Brazaville (ph) squatter camp outside Pretoria, fear of AIDS is mixed with often open hostility to those prepared to admit they're HIV-positive. Rose Madluli (ph) is a mother of three who was infected by her husband and thrown out of the family home by her mother. She now lives in a tin shack.

ROSE MADLULI: I tell my mother, "Ma, my son, he is HIV-positive, and me also am HIV-positive." And my mother take my clothes threw away."

EWART: Teenagers face appalling risks. The latest prediction is that half of all 15-year-olds here will eventually die of AIDS.

(on camera): All the AIDS statistics in this country are terrifying, but the worst of the epidemic is still 10 to 15 years away. By some estimates, 10 million South Africans will then be HIV- positive.

(voice-over): At state-run clinics, drugs that might help, like AZT, are still not freely available. As Africa's AIDS epidemic relentlessly gathers momentum, those most at risk are left defenseless.

Tim Ewart, ITN, Pretoria.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: We want to apologize. We introduced that story, the writer got that wrong, it was not Christie Feig, obviously, that was Tim Ewart reporting.

An international conference to try and tackle the immense problem of AIDS in Africa begins Sunday in South Africa. CNN will have extensive coverage of the 13th International Conference on AIDS, beginning with live reports today at noon and 5:00 p.m. Eastern.

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