SOUTH AFRICA PUBLIC HEALTH FEBRUARY 10 2006 ISSUE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 PRETORIA 000603 SIPDIS STATE PASS TO AID SIPDIS DEPT FOR AF/S; AF/EPS; AF/EPS/SDRIANO DEPT FOR S/OFFICE OF GLOBAL AIDS COORDINATOR STATE PLEASE PASS TO USAID FOR GLOBAL BUREAU KHILL USAID ALSO FOR GH/OHA/CCARRINO AND RROGERS, AFR/SD/DOTT ALSO FOR AA/EGAT SIMMONS, AA/DCHA WINTER HHS FOR THE OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY/WSTEIGER, NIH/HFRANCIS CDC FOR SBLOUNT AND DBIRX E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ECON KHIV SOCI TBIO EAID SF SUBJECT: SOUTH AFRICA PUBLIC HEALTH FEBRUARY 10 2006 ISSUE Summary -------------- ¶1. Summary. Every two weeks, Embassy Pretoria publishes a public health newsletter highlighting South African health issues based on press reports and studies of South African researchers. Comments and analysis do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the U.S. Government. Topics of this week's newsletter cover: Transparency International Warns Against Health Care Fraud; Study Shows Previous Blood Risk Management Policies Led to Drop in HIV-infected Blood Supplies; MSF Starts Handover of HIV/AIDS Treatment; New Head of HSRC HIV/AIDS Research Unit; HSRC Study Details Impact of HIV/AIDS on Teachers; South Africa to Test New HIV Treatment Strategy; Plants used in Traditional Medicine Tested for AIDS Treatment; Aspen Helps Affordable AIDS Treatment; and South Africa Launches New Malaria Initiative. End Summary. Transparency International Warns Against Health Care Fraud -------------- -------------- ¶2. A new Transparency International report warns that health care systems around the world are easy targets for fraud. The report did not quantify the scale of corruption in health-care systems, but said the complexity of health-related industries and the vast sums of public money invested in medical care make the sector an attractive target for fraud. The world spends more than $3.1-trillion on health services each year, almost a third of it in the U.S. Many of the cases in Transparency International's report used examples from South Africa's health- care systems. South Africa's vulnerability to increased fraud was seen in several reports issued in 2005. One report on provincial health departments highlighted problems in public hospitals ranging from unpaid patient bills to poor staff management and stock control. Last November, auditor-general Shauket Fakie censured the national Health Department for a consecutive second year due to poor management of conditional grant transfers. Fakie found the Department had transferred hospital revitalization grants to provinces without first approving project implementation plans, as required by the Division of Revenue Act, and HIV/AIDS grants had been paid to two provinces before their business plans were approved. The Public Service Accountability Monitor, a research organization based in Eastern Cape, says that the provincial health department is vulnerable to fraud and corruption because of a lack of proper management systems. Two of the provincial pharmaceutical storage depots have failed to submit proper records for the past nine years, making it easy for drugs to be misallocated, says the Monitor's advocacy head, Adrienne Carlisle. The provincial health department has acknowledged its weaknesses and privatized management of pharmaceutical depots, but the department's inability to monitor the program means it remains open to corruption, warns Carlisle. Medscheme, one of South Africa's largest medical insurance companies, has caught 62 vendors who admitted submitting fraudulent claims worth R12 million ($2 million using 6 rands per dollar) in the past 12 months, according to Medscheme Chief Information Officer Kevin Right. Source: Business Day, February 2. Study Shows Previous Blood Risk Management Policies Led to Drop in HIV-infected Blood Supplies -------------- -------------- ¶3. According to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the South African National Blood Service's (SANBS) former race-based risk management policy, which barred many blacks from donating blood between 1999 and 2005, led to a substantial drop in HIV-infected blood supplies. Michael Busch with the Blood Systems Research Institute in San Francisco collaborated with SANBS chief executive Anthon Heyns and said the study underscored the dilemma of trying to maintain a safe blood supply in the challenging arena of epidemic infectious disease and social expectations. The research looked at about 900,000 blood donations collected in the inland region from the policy's first year, and compared these with almost 800,000 donations collected from 2001 to 2002, when the policy was implemented. HIV was detected in 0.17% of donations in 1999-2000, but dropped 50 percent to PRETORIA 00000603 002 OF 004 0.08% in 2001-2002 after the implementation of the enhanced- donor selection and education policy. The number of high-risk donations collected decreased from 2.6% to 1.7%. ¶4. Under the old and new policies, prospective donors are asked to answer a questionnaire about their medical history, sexual practices and drug use. Using potential donors' race as a marker of risk was the policy's most controversial component, and in December 2004, the Department of Health declared that race was not an acceptable risk indicator, and officials decided in February2005 to test individual blood samples. More recently, the SANBS's policy of excluding donations from sexually active gay men also has generated criticism. Officials say that, too, is now under review. Source: The Star, February 6; Weekend Argus, February 4; "Blood safety program in South Africa associated with decline in HIV-1 in blood donations", JAMA and Archives Journals, 31 January, 2006, p 519-526. ¶5. Comment. The U.S. government through the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief has been assisting the SANBS to develop new blood screening methodologies. End comment. MSF Starts Handover of HIV/AIDS Treatment -------------- ¶6. After five years of work in the treatment of HIV/AIDS, Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF) is preparing to withdraw from the antiretroviral treatment program in the Cape Town township of Khayelitsha. MSF began offering antiretroviral therapy (ART) in Khayelitsha in 2001, when the provision of anti-AIDS drugs in the public sector was still illegal. At that time, the South African government considered provision of ART too complex and expensive to implement. MSF committed to a five- year plan to treat 180 patients in Khayelitsha, which had the largest concentration of HIV/AIDS patients in South Africa. The organization estimated that 70,000 of Khayelitsha's half a million population are infected with HIV. A national HIV treatment and prevention plan was eventually approved by the government in 2003. With extra financial support from the Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and a reduction in the cost of anti-AIDS drugs, MSF was able to enroll more patients in ART. The organization established three dedicated HIV/AIDS clinics in Khayelitsha's public health facilities, where they now treat close to 3,000 people. MSF figures showed there were fewer than 500 HIV tests taken in 2000 while in 2005 that figure increased to 28,000. MSF has reduced their role in providing drugs, staff and other resources to the Khayelitsha clinics. The provincial health authority for the Western Cape expects to take full control of these projects by mid-2007. MSF intends giving the Treatment Action Campaign a prominent role to act as a permanent monitoring body over treatment and will put pressure on the provincial health authority to maintain quality of service. Source: IRIN News and PLUS News, January 24. New Head of HSRC HIV/AIDS Research Unit -------------- ¶7. Laetitia Rispel, former head of the Gauteng health department, has been appointed as the executive director of the Social Aspects of HIV/AIDS and Health (SAHA) program at the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC). She succeeds Olive Shisana, who took over as President and CEO of the HSRC in August 2005. Rispel has worked for the Gauteng health department for nine years, first as a senior manager, and for the past five years as head of the department. She also worked for eight years at the Center for Health Policy, a research unit within the Wits University Department of Community Health. She obtained a PhD in Health Systems and a Masters in Community Health from the University of the Witwatersrand. In 2002, she completed a senior executive program at Harvard University in conjunction with Wits University. The SAHA program conducts research on the social determinants of health, not only on HIV/AIDS, but also for public health in general. Source: SAPS, January 30. HSRC Study Details Impact of HIV/AIDS on Teachers -------------- -------------- PRETORIA 00000603 003 OF 004 ¶8. South Africa needs 90% anti-retroviral coverage for teachers with HIV, or the country could be losing more than 5 000 teachers to AIDS annually within the next four years. According to an HSRC study by Thomas Rehle and Olive Shisana, one in nearly every 10 teachers with HIV was dying of AIDS, a loss of more than 1% of the total teacher population in 2005. Published in a recent edition of the Journal of Social Aspects of HIV/AIDS, the study pointed to the precarious health status of a large percentage of HIV-positive teachers. The study found that nearly one in every three HIV-positive teachers participating in their survey had a CD4 count of less than 200. More than half had a CD4 count lower than 350 (the U.S. standard for when people start ARV treatment). Their survey results suggested that more than one-fifth of HIV-positive teachers needed ARVs, if healthcare providers used South African national criteria for the start of this treatment. The percentage of HIV-positive teachers with a CD4 count lower than 200 (22%),was higher than those previously reported in population-based studies in sub-Saharan Africa. B 2005, nearly 11,000 teachers needed treatment. If the U.S. treatment standard of a CD4 count of 350 was applied, 25,000 teachers should have started ARV treatment last year. Within the study group of approximately17,000 teachers, the authors expected more than 4,000 to die in 2005 if there was no intervention, and nearly half of those deaths were among teachers aged 35 to ¶44. But by 2010, 90% antiretroviral coverage could result in a 50% reduction in AIDS deaths, according to Shisana and Rehle. Source: IOL, The Cape Argus, IRIN, January 30; www.hsrcpres.ac.za. South Africa to Test New HIV Treatment Strategy -------------- -- ¶9. South African sites will be participants in the Spartac study, which will test a new treatment strategy of providing ART treatment during the early months of HIV infection, rather than in the later stages of the disease. The researchers hope that early treatment will block the virus before it damages the immune system and thus delay the onset of lifelong therapy. Trials will occur in Durban, which as already enrolled 11 volunteers with hopes of 100. The researchers want to enroll a total of 360 including sites at University of Cape Town, and the Reproductive Health and HIV Research Unit at Wits University. Recruitment is difficult as volunteers need to be in the early stage of the infection, when typically there are no clear symptoms. Volunteers will be divided into three groups: one is receiving ARV drugs for three months; the second receiving ARV drugs for one year; and the third getting a placebo. This will be one of the last international HIV trials including a placebo. The South African Spartac investigator is Dr. Francois Venter. Source: Sunday Times, February 5. Plants used in Traditional Medicine Tested for AIDS Treatment -------------- -------------- ¶10. Two African plants used in traditional medicine are research subjects of an initial $4.4 million research grant collaboration between the Mandela School of Medicine at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, the Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology at Duke University, and University of Missouri. Cancer bush (Sutherlandia Frutescens) and African wormwood (Artemisia Afra) have had a long history of treatment use in Africa. Sutherlandia is known as the cancer bush because of its anecdotal reputation as a cure for certain cancers. According to the South Africa National Biodiversity Institute, eating or drinking Sutherlandia leaf improves the appetite and allows weight gain, possibly delaying the progression of HIV into AIDS. In traditional medicine, the African Artemesia plants have been used to treat coughs, colds, fever, intestinal worms and malaria. According to Ben-Erik van Wyk, professor of botany at Rand Africaans University, natural products and their derivatives make up more than 50% of all drugs in clinical use. The first part of the project will monitor AIDS patients at Edendale Hospital in Pietermaritzburg being treated with extracts of the cancer bush. Further pre-clinical studies will be done on African wormwood for possible use in treating AIDS, tuberculosis, and cervical cancer. Similar work will be done PRETORIA 00000603 004 OF 004 in Malawi, Gambia, Tanzania and Uganda as part of a 7-year project costing $300 million. Source: The Mercury, Cape Times, Pretoria News, January 26. Aspen Helps Affordable AIDS Treatment -------------- ¶11. Over the past five years, the cost of a year's supply of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs in South Africa has dropped from over R95,000 ($13,690, using 6.94 rands per dollar, the 2000 average rate of exchange) to around R1,200 ($190, using 6.36, the 2005 average rate of exchange) for the standard first-line package of three drugs a day, largely because generic ARV drugs are now available. Second-line drugs for people who develop side-effects or resistance to the first-line drugs are still significantly more expensive as they tend to be newer drugs still under patent protection. Aspen Pharmacare, the largest pharmaceutical company listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, has played a key role in securing voluntary licenses from pharmaceutical companies to enable Aspen to make cheap generic versions of brand name drugs. Aspen senior executive Stavros Nicolau is convinced that voluntary licenses have been responsible for South Africa's successful provision of generic drugs because acrimonious relations with pharmaceutical companies were avoided. By 2001, Aspen had secured its first voluntary license from GlaxoSmithKline to manufacture AZT and 3TC. Since then, it has secured voluntary licenses from Bristol-Myers Squibb (for stavudine and didanosine),Boehringer Ingleheim (for nevirapine) and Merck Sharp & Dohme (for efavirenz). According to Nicolau, Aspen's 2005 achievements include: (1) becoming the first generic manufacturer to get US Food and Drug Administration approval for drug supply; (2) becoming the main supplier for the South African Health Department's provision of antiretroviral drugs, providing eight out of 15 categories of drugs; (3) securing a non-exclusive licensing and distribution arrangement with Gilead Sciences to make generic versions of the ARVs, Truvada (a combination of emtricitabine and tenofovir) and Viread (tenofovir); and (4) entering into a joint venture with India's Matrix, one of the world's largest manufacturers of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) for ARVs, which ensures Aspen's continued supply of ARVs. Aspen is beginning to focus on the U.S. and U.K. market for additional sales since it had received manufacturing approval from both regulatory authorities. Source: Financial Mail, December 2005; Health E-News, January 18 2006; Business Day, February 7, 2006. South Africa Launches New Malaria Initiative -------------- ¶12. Science and Technology Minister Mangena officially launched the South African Malaria Initiative (SAMI),an R11.5 million ($1.9 million, using 6 rands per dollar) research grant whose aim is to focus on three areas: developing new antimalarial compounds; better malarial diagnostics; and examining the interaction between the malaria parasite and its carriers. SAMI intends to develop a national and regional capacity for treatment and diagnostics of malaria. There are on average 10,000 cases of malaria a year in South Africa, mostly impacting rural populations of Mpumalanga, Limpopo and northern KwaZulu-Natal provinces. Source: Pretoria News, Business Day, February 8. TEITELBAUM