Police+fire+rubber+bullets+at+AIDS-drugs+protesters,+B+Day

Business Day, Johannesburg, 14 July 2005
=Police fire rubber bullets at AIDS-drugs protesters=


 * Tamar Kahn, Science and Health Editor**

FORTY people were injured, one seriously, after police fired rubber bullets and smoke grenades on Tuesday at Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) protesters demanding government speed up providing AIDS drugs in Eastern Cape.

At least 53000 HIV-positive people in the province need anti-retroviral treatment, but only about 4600 are getting the life-prolonging medicines, said TAC spokeswoman Sipho Mthathi.

“The police used excessive force against people who were (exercising) their legal right to peaceful protest … there was no provocation, no insults or injury from their side,” Mthathi said.

She said about 700 TAC protesters marched to Frontier Hospital in Queenstown in Eastern Cape to demand the hospital provide treatment to more HIV-positive patients.

The hospital, an accredited state treatment site, has provided AIDS drugs to fewer than 200 patients in the past 18 months, said Mthathi.

Police spokesman Supt Gcinikaya Taleni said, however, that hospital management called on police to disperse the protesters, who had forced their way into wards and were preventing doctors and nurses from doing their jobs.

“Police asked protesters to move away from the wards and offices, which they refused to do.

“The police used minimum force — rubber bullets — to scare them off,” he said.

Taleni said there were no casualties while the crowd of “about 1500” protesters was dispersed, but the injuries might have occurred when the crowd stampeded.

Taleni said the organisers did not notify authorities of their intention to demonstrate, as required by law.

This was denied by Mthati, however, who said the TAC obtained permission from both traffic authorities and the police.

She said the TAC planned to press criminal charges against the police.

The TAC had organised the protest after more than six months of negotiations with the provincial and local health authorities over the slow pace of government’s AIDS- drug roll-out plan in Eastern Cape.

Government launched its AIDS treatment programme in November 2003, promising free treatment to HIV-positive patients using public clinics and hospitals.

The latest health department estimates, released last Friday, say between 6,29-million and 6,57-million South Africans were infected with HIV by last year.

Experts say at least 10% of those infected with HIV are at the stage of the disease where they need AIDS drugs, but only about 50 000 are being treated at government facilities.

Eastern Cape’s provincial health spokesman Sizwe Kutelo said the province was committed to the AIDS drug rollout, but said patients needed to be screened and treated for current infections before they started taking antiretrovirals.

Kutelo said the province met its target of treating 2700 patients by March this year and aimed to treat 15169 by March next year.

So far, 6420 patients are receiving the drugs through the programme and 10094 are on waiting lists, he said. With Sapa-AP-AFP


 * From: http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/topstories.aspx?ID=BD4A68745