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TITLE: Hospitals to Participate In Free Antiretrovirals Programme for Pregnant Women |
AUTHOR: Charlene Smith |
PUB: Mail and Guardian |
DATE: January 26, 2001 |
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Within the next six weeks Nevirapine will be available free of charge to pregnant mothers with HIV in all of South Africa's provinces. The government project will begin in 18 major hospitals and their feeder clinics and will extend to more hospitals during the year. The Department of Health has told provinces it is "urgent" that they begin soon. Gauteng begins on February 1 and the Eastern Cape soon after. All health departments will meet on Friday to iron out the final details of the project. A senior official at the health department said it was important that there was a "rural, urban balance. However, we also need to extend this project to those hospitals where most births occur to ensure cost effectiveness. There is a national budget with provincial contributions too." Hospitals that have long been giving antiretrovirals to prevent mother- to-child transmission " King Edward hospital in Durban and Chris Hani Baragwanath hospital in Johannesburg " provided their protocols to the health department, and are partnering with other hospitals to help staff implement the programme correctly. Chris Hani Baragwanath will help Gauteng and Northern Cape hospitals. The Western Cape will assist the Free State, Eastern Cape and Northern Province. Hospitals where the project will be implemented include: l Gauteng: Kalafong hospital, Natalspruit hospital. Later this year Leratong hospital, Krugersdorp hospital and Johannesburg hospital will be added to the project. l Northern Cape: De Aar hospital, Kimberley hospital. l Eastern Cape: Cecilia Makiwane hospital, Rietvlei hospital. l Western Cape: Guguletu day hospital, Vanguard Obstetric Unit, Paarl hospital, Worcester hospital, George hospital, Khayelitsha clinic, Groote Schuur hospital. Thandi Tshane, head of maternal health in the Gauteng Department of Health, said Kalafong and Natalspruit hospitals had been chosen to kickstart the project because they average 5 000 deliveries a month between them. "Later this year we will phase in Johannesburg and Leratong. How soon depends on how well we progress at the first two." The Eastern Cape will begin the project "as soon as we receive the drugs, which we hope will be early February. Everything else is ready, the rapid tests, the training, the counselling, the lot," said Sister Nomvula Silwana-Kwadjo, local programme manager for the project. The project is already under way at one of the two identified Western Cape pilot sites. At the obstetrics section of the Guguletu day hospital the project began on January 3. Western Cape Aids coordinator, provincial deputy director general Dr Fareed Abdullah, said the second pilot site identified jointly by national and provincial health officials at Paarl hospital would start issuing Nevirapine in April. The Western Cape started providing AZT to pregnant women at the Khayelitsha day hospital towards the end of 1998. Of the around 14 000 women who have been assessed since then, around 18% have been identified as living with HIV/Aids. Abdullah said the AZT programme would continue as this would help compare the impact of reducing mother-to-child transmission of the two different drugs. END |