13/03/2004

Catholic church backs use of ARVs

A Roman Catholic lay group said on Saturday that a full complement of anti-retroviral drugs sharply reduced the transmission of Aids from mother to child and had proved more effective than nevirapine alone.

The Community of Sant'Egidio set up in Mozambique two years ago and the project has quickly expanded to 13 centres providing a full cocktail of anti-retroviral drugs to 1 450 women under its care, spokesperson Mario Marazziti said.

Some 4 000 people were covered by its assistance, drugs and follow-up care, Marazziti said in neighbouring South Africa by telephone from the Mozambican capital Maputo.

"Nevirapine alone is a mistake in today's policies against Aids in Africa and is not even so effective in reducing the risk of vertical transmission from mother to child," Marazziti said.

"A new approach, making available a complete complement of anti-retroviral drugs, is what is needed," said Marazziti, adding research from Sant'Egidio's Mozambique project showed a 97 percent success in ending mother-to-child transmission.

Sant'Egidio will unveil its full research findings at a Johannesburg news conference on Tuesday.

Building on from Mozambique, Sant'Egidio would expand its anti-retroviral programme to Angola, Malawi, Swaziland, Guinea Bissau, Guinea (Conakry) and South Africa, Marazziti said.

The Community of Sant'Egidio began in Rome in 1968 and has over 40 000 members, mainly lay people dedicated to charity in Italy and at least 60 other countries throughout the world.

Mozambique is one of the poorest countries in the world. Aids prevalence there is 14 percent in a population of 18 million - relatively good news in southern Africa where rates range between 20 and 40 percent.

Sant'Egidio purchased from India three generic drugs that make its tri-therapy - AZT, nevirapine and lamivudine - and at an annual cost of $300 per person per year, a fraction of the price quoted by Western pharmaceuticals for the cocktail.

In a region where Aids is still a taboo subject and patients are often shunned, some 6 000 women have been voluntarily tested for HIV, of whom 1 220 were found positive and put on anti-retroviral treatment.

Mozambique was one of the first African countries to embrace therapy alongside prevention in its bid to tackle Aids, which is decimating African professionals faster than replacements can be trained, regional Aids experts said.

"Most national Aids plans focused on prevention. No one talked about therapy. So we started the first comprehensive therapeutic approach in tackling Aids," Marazziti said.

Around 40 million people worldwide are infected with HIV - 26,6 million of them in sub-Saharan Africa, United Nations data shows.

Manoah Esipisu