Spotlight published an analysis of the current plan here.)
South Africa’s fourth plan began in 2017 and was set to run until 2022. Consultations for the country’s next plan were slated to start in the coming months. However, the South African National AIDS Council (Sanac) now says the government will extend the current plan to 2023 to allow HIV and TB responses to recover from Covid-19-related disruptions. The country was already underperforming on national targets before the Covid-19 outbreak, a 2019 review of the current national strategic plan found.
The national Aids council says it plans to have costed recovery plans for HIV and TB services by June.
The growing crisis in many of South Africa’s clinics has reached a point where patient care is being compromised and there is a deepening worry that people living with HIV are being pushed out of treatment, argues Anele Yawa and Lotti Rutter. In this op-ed, they ask whether repeat prescription collection strategies are simpler and quicker than waiting in long clinic queues.
Anele Yawa is the General Secretary of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC). Lotti Rutter is with Health GAP. Both work on the Ritshidze project.
The growing crisis in many of South Africa’s clinics has reached a point where patient care is being compromised. There is a deepening worry that people living with HIV are being pushed out of treatment.
Allowing people living with HIV to collect their medication refills outside of the clinic can improve this experience and reduce the risk of people disengaging from care. Decentralising medication refills together with longer ARV refills can reduce how often people living with HIV actually have to go to the clinic reducing time spent in long queues, interacting with rude staff, or having their status involuntarily disclosed, as often reported through community-led monitoring, of the kind we do as part of the Ritshidze project.
A bulwark against tyranny
If Zimbabwe is to be true to its democratic identity the courts and the rule of law are indispensable
Lawyers of the Law Society of Zimbabwe bar association take part in a “March for Justice” toward the Constitutional Court in Harare on January 29, 2019, to call for restoration of the rule of law, respect of human rights as well as the country’s Constitution.PHOTO by JEKESAI NJIKIZANA/AFP
Acts of commission or omission by the judiciary have consequences more far reaching than most may realise: Zimbabwe is currently using a currency (bond notes) whose promulgation was shrouded in legal mystery, never to be ventilated by the courts because the courts “passed the buck” when the opportunity came through.
Jonathan Berger / The Conversation Recognising that IP may well be abused, TRIPS allows countries to adopt public health safeguards and flexibilities. US Trade Representative Katherine Tai. Photo by Inter-American Dialogue via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 2.0)
“Extraordinary times … call for extraordinary measures”, said Katherine Tai, the US Trade Representative, last week as she announced that the Biden administration supports waiving “IP protections on Covid-19 vaccines to help end the pandemic”.
Given the hard-line position on IP adopted by previous administrations, regardless of which party was in power, this was quite extraordinary.
But what does it actually mean, and will it make any difference?