Friday, February 27, 2009

TAC pickets over lack of ART

By Cindy Witten
27 February 2009


The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) picketed outside the Free State Provincial Parliament in Bloemfontein today in protest against the ongoing failure of the Free State Department of Health to lift the moratorium on antiretroviral treatment.

The TAC says that since November last year the moratorium has been put in place, but some of the ART sites are still not initiating new patients onto drugs.

The TAC’s Sello Mokhalipi says that this is unacceptable because people are suffering as a result of this violation of their constitutional rights to health.

“We are passing the message that the issue of ARV’s should be considered as a very critical and crucial issue,” said Mokhalipi.

According to research done, the TAC estimates that in the Free State 30 people die everyday because of the province's failure to make ART available to all those in need.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

it is critical that this issue is addressed especially that the ruling party claims to have done so much for people living with HIV. This could be seen as if we are one step forward and three steps backwards. Are we really putting prioritising the saving lives of people living with HIV? is still remains to be seen.

DA retains seat in Manenberg

The Democratic Alliance (DA) retained its seat in ward 30 in the Cape Metro . A municipal by-elections was held for the ward on Tuesday an...