‘ARVs are not Panado’: Health Minister Motsoaledi says ARVs cannot be sent to illegal miners without diagnosis
Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi said the standard procedure for anti-retroviral medicine includes the patient having to be examined by a medical practitioner and the medication is only given when a patient has tested positive of HIV.
On Monday, IOL reported that the South African Police Service (SAPS) said it will send anti-retroviral medication (ARVs) to the illegal miners who are trapped underground at the disused Stilfontein mine shaft in the North West.
The announcement was made on Monday after the High Court in Pretoria issued an interim order which ruled that the shaft may not be blocked by any person or institution, whether government or private.
Judge Brenda Neukircher ordered that relief workers should be granted access to the mine, where thousands of workers are believed to be trapped and in desperate need of medical attention and food.
The lifeline came after an urgent application by the Society for the Protection of Our Constitution following the government’s hardline approach against the miners which it labelled as “criminals”.
On Monday, authorities on site together with community rescue teams received a note from the illegal miners written in isiZulu, asking for ARVs to be sent into the mine shaft.
“Sicela ama ARVs plz, abantu bayawadinga ngapha. Siyacela bandla”.
Translated in English: “Can we please have ARV pills. People need them here, please.”
Speaking to broadcaster Newzroom Afrika on Monday, Motsoaledi said the request presents a complexity.
“The department (of health) in itself does not provide anybody with any medication. We develop policies, and the issue of you getting medication is between you and your doctor. Firstly, a doctor must diagnose you and prescribe for you. Antiretrovirals are not Panado, they are not over-the-counter medication,” said Motsoaledi.
“They go from a doctor to a patient or a nurse to a patient following particular policies and standards, but only after an encounter with such a doctor. They are not just distributed like food, water or like vitamins. That is what I was discussing with the Minister (of Police Senzo Mchunu).”
Motsoaledi said he does not know how the SA Police Service could possibly send ARVs down the shaft to the stranded miners who apparently take the chronic medication.
“Who do you send the ARVs to? As I am saying, for you to get any medication especially like ARVs, a doctor ought to have examined you and prescribed them. Under whose name will the ARVs come out, and where will they come out from? What will they be treating, because we do not know the diagnosis of anybody,” said the minister.
He added that the police minister clarified to him that police had given an undertaking that SAPS will not stop anybody who intends to go into the mine shaft to help the miners.
“We cannot just take medicine, and say somebody has demanded ARVs so we are taking them there. What if we are causing harm to a particular person? That is what I was asking the minister (Mchunu) on what this is all about, is it going to be done and what laws,” said Motsoaledi.
On Sunday, IOL reported that SAPS said the interim court order does not halt the police operation at Stilfontein where the illegal miners, said to be in thousands, are stranded underground.
IOL