JOHANNESBURG, June 6 (Xinhua) -- Health Department on Thursday said that it was aware that there's a shortage of antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) across a number of provinces in South Africa.
"The National department of Health has noted reports of shortage of a second line ARV (Lamividine) in some parts of the country," department's spokesperson Foster Mohale told Xinhua.
Gauteng, Free State, Mpumalanga and Limpopo are among affected provinces by the crisis.
Mohale blamed the problem on the lack of an ingredient used to manufacture ARVs globally.
"This shortage is as a result of the inability of a supplier to meet its contractual obligations due to a global shortage of the active pharmaceutical ingredient needed to manufacture the ARV. Provincial Departments of Health have been informed of the regimen that clinicians can switch patients to," Mohale said.
South Africa has about 4 million HIV positive people on ARVs and only 240,000 can afford to buy it from private sector. Poor people get it from government for free. This shortage only affected the poor who rely on government for free treatment.
Anele Yawa, Secretary General of an health organization called Treatment Action Campaign, told Xinhua that HIV positive patients on these ARVs were being turned away from affected health institutions.
"There are drugs that are not available and also TB medicine. We spoke to the department which said there's a global crisis. In the Free State we visited six clinics which are turning people away," he said.
Yawa said that thousands of patients have been affected since March.
Yawa said some health centers in Kwazulu Natal were without HIV test kits.
