Compiled and edited by Martin Flynn
developing countries but the South African government has said the drug
is unsafe and refuses to allow state hospitals to prescribe any antiretrovirals.
Government attorney Moene Moerane said: "There is no right to health
care services, there is no right to nevirapine."
But Mark Heywood, secretary of the Treatment Action Campaign, called the
government ban on the drugs "shameful" and said it was infringing
the rights of the country's HIV positive pregnant women.
See also Treatment
News and comments
page
page 2 of 10
1
/ 2 / 3
/ 4
/ 5
/ 6 / 7
/
8 / 9
/ 10
contents
of issue 75
back
issues
the
gazette
recipes
small
ads
contacting
us
weblinks
40 million now living with HIV
The headline news from World Aids Day is that over 40 million people
worldwide are now living with the virus, and over 8,000 people die from
Aids every day.
According to UNAIDS, the epicentre of HIV is still subSaharan Africa.
There, 28 million people now have HIV and 2.3 million will die from Aids
in 2002.
However the number of new HIV infections in Eastern
Godfrey Sikipa, of the World Health Organisation, (left) and Bernard Schwart-Lander, of UNAIDS, (right) explain the stark new HIV and Aids figures in London
Europe is now rising faster than anywhere else in the world.
"HIV is spreading rapidly throughout the entire Eastern European
region - a quarter
of a million new cases last year," said Dr Peter Piot, executive director of
