P ARIS - The controversy erupted on the southern government decision -africain retain the antiviral drug AZT to pregnant women infected with HIV - despite the compound to demonstrate efficacy in preventing HIV transmission to offspring
AIDS officials, doctors and activists say that they are puzzled by the decision, in which the south African government. last month said it would not provide AZT to pregnant women in any health program funded. "We believe that the drug prices unaffordable," said Ian Roberts, Special Adviser to the Minister of Health of South Africa Nkosazana Zuma. But Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS, argues that South Africa " clearly [hasn't] done enough "to contain the mother's infection rate to alarming child: in some areas, more than a fifth of pregnant women are HIV-positive, and a hospital based in Soweto delivered nearly 1,000 children infected HIV this year. Overall, nearly 15% of South African adults are home HIV, said Bernhard Schwartländer, senior epidemiologist of UNAIDS.
While Africa is currently the main victim of the epidemic, the latest figures published by the United Nations last week reveal disturbing trends on the other. In India, sampling in rural areas found adult HIV prevalence of infection up to 2%. Even in Western Europe and North America, where AIDS deaths are down thanks to antiviral therapies, the proportion of the population infected with HIV continues to rise; Epidemiologists registered 74,000 new infections on both continents in 1998. Some 5.8 million people worldwide were infected with HIV in 1998, bringing the total number of people infected with HIV to 33.4 million.
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