AEGiS-AP: Infected AIDS activist won't take disease-fighting drugs until South Africa provides them to all

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Infected AIDS activist won't take disease-fighting drugs until South Africa provides them to all

Associated Press - Tuesday April 1, 2003
Elliott Sylvester, Associated Press Writer

CAPE TOWN, South Africa - Etched in Zackie Achmat's memory are the last choking grunts of a friend dying of AIDS. The HIV -positive law student could well die of the disease himself if he doesn't begin taking antiretroviral drugs.

Achmat, an outspoken leader of a civil disobedience campaign that seeks to force the government to supply the expensive drugs widely, could afford to buy them through his private medical insurance.

But he insisted Tuesday he won't take the drugs until the government caves in.

"I am taking vitamins, antidepressants, TB prophylactics and nutrients," he said, "... But I need antiretrovirals now."

Achmat, who was diagnosed with the HIV virus in 1990, is leading a new wave of activism to help South Africa's 4.7 million HIV-infected people - one in 9 - get AIDS-fighting drugs, even at the cost of his own life.

Since August he has reported suffering from two chest infections, a degenerative nerve disorder, chronic sinusitis and thrush.

Former President Nelson Mandela last year visited the 41-year-old Achmat at his home and, after praising him as a role model and loyal member of the ruling African National Congress, pledged to help his protests be heard in government circles.

As a young anti-apartheid activist, Achmat was detained without trial five times. His new protest pits him against former ANC comrades. Like anti-apartheid protests his new group, the Treatment Action Campaign, chooses civil disobedience as its main weapon.

The TAC, which began three years ago by smuggling generic drugs into the country, has quickly grown into a mass movement.

It won a groundbreaking case last year when the Constitutional Court ordered the government to supply antiretroviral drugs to public hospitals and clinics.

Such drugs are designed to block substances that the HIV virus uses to make copies of itself once it invades a blood cell. The drugs' introduction in the mid-1990s has turned HIV infection from a death sentence into a manageable chronic disease - for those who can afford the price tag.

But South Africa's government has repeatedly rejected appeals for all HIV patients to get the drug. The court order has yet to be enforced because of a gridlock in negotiations between the government, labor officials and other groups.

Last week Achmat verbally abused the health minister, Dr. Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, as she tried to address a public health conference.

Achmat and about 160 TAC activists chanted "Murderer!" and "Manto go to jail!"

Shortly afterward, Tshabalala-Msimang offered to resume talks.

"I can't apologize for calling her a murderer because it is an uncomfortable fact that can be substantiated," Achmat said.

The TAC claims government inaction underwrites about 600 AIDS-related deaths a day.

Last month, Achmat and hundreds of other activists kicked off their civil disobedience campaign by filing manslaughter complaints against Tshabalala-Msimang and Trade and Industry Minister Alec Erwin.

Tshabalala-Msimang has condemned Achmat's behavior but recognizes his right to protest.

"Through its disobedience campaign, the TAC spreads malicious lies that government 'had the resources to take action to reduce the prices of HIV-AIDS medicines' but had failed to do so," she said, quoting a TAC pamphlet.

She insisted that new legislation this year would "give our country better options in accessing affordable, quality medicines."

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