BY KHOPOTSO BODIBE, 31 MAY 2012
Insufficient production of Tenofovir, (click here) a crucial antiretroviral drug that is part of the three-drug combination therapy that AIDS patients need to suppress their virus, has left patients in the public sector taking sub-optimal treatment.
Widespread shortages of the antiretroviral drug, Tenofovir, have been reported since October last year. In all of this time, the problem has still not been fully resolved.
"We're hearing reports of shortages of the drug, Tenofovir, both in big urban centres like Johannesburg, but we're also hearing reports of shortages in out-lying and rural areas such as Zithulele Hospital in the Eastern Cape, parts of Mpumalanga, parts of Limpopo. So, clearly, there is a problem. And, clearly, it's a problem that needs to be addressed quickly", says Mark Heywood, an executive member of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC).
Heywood says the shortage has forced doctors to ration Tenofovir supply to patients and to also switch their treatment and give them a regimen that is not easy to tolerate....
..."Tenofovir is procured by the State through a tender system. That tender was awarded in 2010, December and during the period 2011, January - December 2011, we had supply of Tenofovir in addition to the suppliers on tender from the US government. We had donation stock, as we would call it. The USAID donation was going to terminate in December 2011. So, we met with suppliers in November 2011 to highlight the fact that, firstly, the supplies from the USAID donations was going to come to an end and that the additional stock will then have to come from themselves to alert the suppliers to this so that they could make the necessary preparations to be able to supply this increased volume. Clearly, what happened, though, is that that was not adequate time for them. They could not keep up with the demand", according to the national Health Department's Dr Anban Pillay....
..."Tenofovir is procured by the State through a tender system. That tender was awarded in 2010, December and during the period 2011, January - December 2011, we had supply of Tenofovir in addition to the suppliers on tender from the US government. We had donation stock, as we would call it. The USAID donation was going to terminate in December 2011. So, we met with suppliers in November 2011 to highlight the fact that, firstly, the supplies from the USAID donations was going to come to an end and that the additional stock will then have to come from themselves to alert the suppliers to this so that they could make the necessary preparations to be able to supply this increased volume. Clearly, what happened, though, is that that was not adequate time for them. They could not keep up with the demand", according to the national Health Department's Dr Anban Pillay....
