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afrol.com, 12 March - South Africa's leading trade union, COSATU, today called on President Thabo Mbeki to declare HIV/AIDS a national disaster and declare a state of emergency. With over 20% of the country's population infected, there certainly is a crisis. A state of emergency should give South Africa the right to import cheaper, generic AIDS drugs. On Wednesday, 14 March President Mbeki will be responding to HIV/AIDS related questions in parliament. "This day represent an opportune moment for a decisive way forward to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic, COSATU spokesperson Siphiwe Mgcina today stated. COSATU believes that the President should utilise this day to take a bold step by declaring HIV/AIDS a national disaster. - That the epidemic has reached crisis proportion is beyond doubts, says Mgcina. It is estimated that close to 400,000 people died from AIDS-related diseases since 1997. Last week marked the opening of a Pretoria court case against the South African government, initiated by 41 drug companies to halt a law opening for the import of cheap copies of brand name medicine (generics). Generic drugs can in some cases be provided for less than 10 percent of the price as brand name medicine. COSATU says it "believes that by declaring HIV/AIDS a national disaster this would allow government the space to issue compulsory licenses to companies that are prepared to produce generic substitutes. Such a move will also boost employment creation in the domestic economy. Declaring a National Emergency would also enable government to invoke the TRIPS agreement, which allow for patents to be by-passed in national emergencies," says Mgcina. The Prestoria court case on 7 March was adjourned until 18 April, to give the country's leading AIDS pressure group, Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), to present evidence that drug companies "abuse their patents in the way they price medicines in different markets and demonstrating the misery caused by AIDS in the developing world." Critics however say that while there is no decision allowing South Africa to import generic drugs "the minutes are ticking by" (WOZA title). The South African government introduced the Medicines Control Amendment Act in 1997, but its implemantation was blocked by obtaining an interim interdict. Since then, estimates are that the companies have spent three years and millions of American dollars preparing their case. Meanwhile, every week in South Africa, 5,000 persons die of AIDS and 12,000 people, including 1,400 babies, get infected with HIV - most of them out of reach of lifegiving drugs. Especially babies could be helped by the implemantation of the Medicines Act, as the government is to provide free medicaments to pregnant women, preventing the infection of their babies - if drugs are aforable, that is. International organisation, such as the World Health Agency, Oxfam and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), support the South African government and its claims that the emergency situation in the country, and other poor countries, should provide ground for the exceptions given by the TRIPS trade agreement. There is a "catastrophe facing the people of South Africa," Phil Bloomer of Oxfam last week commented the country's HIV/AIDS situation. - Declaring HIV/AIDS as a national disaster does not however substitute for the need to implement the Medicines and Related Substance Control Amendment Act, however argues COSATU's Siphiwe Mgcina. "For this reason COSATU calls on government to implement the legislation as a matter of urgency. Government has the full support of the vast majority of our people and the international community to forge ahead with the implementation of the Act. We can no longer allow a tiny minority concerned with protecting super-normal profits to hold the health of the nation at ransom." While the country's HIV infected and other countries in a similar situation as South Africa are awaiting the results of the Pretoria case, Indian generic drug companies are already preparing for a large scale entry on the African market. According to the Wall Street Journal, Indian Hetero Drugs Ltd has already entered an agreement with a large South African generics firm, Aspen Pharmacare Ltd, to distribute Hetero's drugs - if government wins its lawsuit.
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