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Addicts getting high on AIDS meds
Health24
2008-07-04
South African AIDS patients in Durban are under siege from drug addicts who rob them of their antiretroviral treatment to get high, the provincial health department said Wednesday.
The life prolonging drug Stocrin, one of the antiretroviral
drugs used to fight AIDS, is reportedly crushed and mixed with marijuana and
sold in the townships around the coastal city.The health department has warned
that the trend could spark shortages in the city's hospitals and health centers,
in one of the provinces worst afflicted by the AIDS pandemic. "This
practice is disturbing, a large number of HIV patients depend on the state
sponsored treatment to stay healthy," spokesman Leon Mbangwa told AFP.
Patients mugged on way home with drugs
The department dismissed media reports that health workers
at certain hospitals were involved in selling HIV drugs to criminal rings, who
then target patients when nurses cannot keep up with the demand. "All
medication is kept in the hospital pharmacy and only certain levels of nurses
have access to it," said Mbangwa. Patients collecting medication at the
Prince
Mshiyeni
Memorial
Hospital
in Umlazi, south of
Durban
have complained of being ambushed by criminals on their way home. Others have
had their home ransacked by thugs looking for the lifesaving drugs."The
concoction of Stocrin and dagga (marijuana) is very dangerous and eventually
leads to death. The drug mixture breaks down the immune system and reduces the
resistance of the body," said Anwar Jeewa, director of the Minds Alive
rehabilitation centre. South Africa has the highest number of HIV sufferers in
the world with around 5.5 million of the 47 million population affected by the
virus, and the world's biggest ARV programme with more than 478 000 people
registered for treatment.
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