those with HIV at serious risk of developing AIDS

Later in July, there were reports of counterfeit antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) flooding the market in Zimbabwe, potentially putting many lives at risk. The adverse economic and political conditions in Zimbabwe meant that supplies of government-funded ARVs dried up in many parts of the country, leaving those with HIV at serious risk of developing AIDS. This left the door open for dealers to sell fake or illegally obtained pills to HIV positive people desperate to maintain their health. A spokesperson for the Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe (MCAZ) said “Such medicines may be counterfeited, adulterated and contaminated, thus rendering them ineffective and sometimes dangerous.”¹³

Protest at South African Deputy Health Minister's sacking

As July drew to a close so to did the eight-year ordeal of the six Bulgarian medics facing the death sentence in Libya for allegedly infecting hundreds of children with HIV. They had always denied the claim, saying their confessions were extracted under torture. Expert evidence from various scientists claimed that the infections began long before the medics had arrived in the country, and that they were due to poor hygiene and the reuse of equipment and needles.¹⁴ The Libyan authorities finally agreed to release the medics to spend the rest of their sentences in Bulgaria, but on arrival, they were pardoned by the Bulgarian President and returned home to their friends and families.¹⁵

Optimism regarding South Africa’s response to the AIDS crisis was short lived after it was announced in August that the Deputy Health Minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge had been fired. After years of denial and inaction in the country it was felt that Madlala-Routledge was a government member who finally recognised the seriousness of the epidemic and was determined to take effective action. The official reason for Madlala-Routledge’s dismissal was cited as her inappropriate labelling of infant deaths at Frere Hospital as ‘a national emergency’ and accusations of her attendance at an AIDS conference in Spain without the President’s permission. But it was felt that the underlying motive for her dismissal was her ongoing conflict with Tshabalala-Msimang, the Health Minister, and in particular their contrasting opinions on how to confront AIDS.¹⁶

It was revealed that the African nation of Botswana had managed to dramatically reduce rates of mother to child HIV transmission. Botswana, with one of the highest HIV prevalence rates in the world, set up a comprehensive treatment and care programme, to ensure that all women were being tested for HIV in pregnancy and offered appropriate drugs to prevent HIV being passed to their babies. Without intervention, around one in three babies born to HIV positive mothers will become infected with HIV themselves; but by implementing this programme, Botswana successfully cut the mother-to-child transmission rate to under 4%.¹⁷

In August, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to the new HIV drugs maraviroc (Selzentry) and raltegravir (Isentress). These two new drugs offered hope to patients infected with virus strains resistant to almost all other classes of drugs designed to fight AIDS.

In October, it was revealed that hundreds of South Africans who had been involved in an AIDS vaccine trial might have an increased risk of HIV infection as a result. The trial, which was being conducted by the Merck pharmaceutical company, had been halted in the previous month after initial results showed the vaccine to be ineffective, an outcome that was described by leading vaccine researcher Dr. Gary Nabel as “a big blow to the field.”¹⁸ It was revealed that the infection rate was higher among people who received the vaccine than among those given a placebo. Experts said the vaccine itself could not have caused HIV infection, but it may have increased the risk of transmission by affecting immune responses.¹⁹

The biographer of Thabo Mbeki revealed in November that the South African President remained unconvinced that HIV caused AIDS. Mbeki had previously stepped back from the AIDS debate in South Africa in 2000 after causing much controversy.²⁰