Policy to reduce mother to child HIV unchanged: Minister

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Polity

Published: 16 Jul 2004

Policy to reduce mother to child HIV unchanged: Minister

The South African government's policy to reduce the risk of mother to child transmission of HIV remains unchanged, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said in a statement yesterday.

"The Department of Health will continue providing Nevirapine as monotherapy to mothers and babies at public health facilities until new agreed upon treatment regimens are available," she said.

Tshabalala-Msimang also said a consultative workshop would be held after the 15th International Aids Conference underway in Bangkok, Thailand, to revisit the treatment protocols for the Prevention of Mother To Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT) programme.

This follows the Medicines Control Council's (MCC's) recommendation that a combination of antiretrovirals be used instead of a single dose of Nevirapine for PMTCT.

"It must be emphasised that the MCC did not recommend that the use of Nevirapine be stopped altogether, but that it should be used in combination with other drugs, because it is showing a significant resistance of up to 50%. Also, the drug has not been deregistered as indicated in media reports," Tshabalala-Msimang said.

She added that the MCC's findings were in line with a recent World Health Organisation's recommendation that stated that combination therapy using both AZT and Nevirapine is the preferred approach to a single dose for PMTCT. – Sapa.