Treatment has to start somewhere
The point of view you recently ran in your magazine ('Mum-to-baby
prevention programmes questioned', PN
78) is doing serious damage to our efforts to ensure access to medicines.
The decision to use nevirapine, as opposed to another regime, for the
prevention of mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) was the decision of
the South African government, not the TAC. Eventually, long-course antiretrovirals
might become a reality in the South African public sector, but not yet.
Nevirapine is used in the US as part of combination therapy for MTCT.
It is disturbing that Positive Nation, ostensibly a magazine representing
the cause of people with HIV, is taking a line on this issue which is
detrimental to the efforts of people with HIV in one of the worst-hit
countries in the world.
Nathan Geffen, Treatment Action Campaign, South
Africa
Mind your language
I am a regular reader of your magazine and used to be a contributor as
well. I am getting increasingly concerned about the use of certain words
and images in your magazine. For example, on the back cover of your last
issue (PN 78), you have used the word 'fuck'! I am not easily shocked,
but I don't want to have to read obscenities (even where the intended
outcome is not vulgar) in my most valued HIV magazine. I am sure I am
not the first to complain. It may seem OK to many readers, but I am sure
there are others like me that would like to see this magazine representative
of all HIV communities, and more sensitive language would be appropriate.
If not, I am just going to have to quit reading your magazine. Keep up
the good work.
page 1 of 4
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