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KAMPALA, Uganda, Mar 18, 2001 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- The South African government has rejected the offer from an American company of one million free AIDS test kits to help in the fight against the AIDS plague, a local newspaper reported Sunday.
The Sunday Times newspaper of Johannesburg said the donation offer from U.S. drug manufacturer Guardian Scientific Africa Inc. was worth about seven million dollars.
The test kits can diagnose the human immuno-deficiency virus (HIV) a few minutes after testing for it in one drop of human blood.
The Sunday Times reported that South Africa's Department of Health instead awarded the contract to two international companies, which will supply South Africa with 200,000 kits a year.
After Botswana and Zimbabwe, South Africa is the world's worst affected country, with close to 20 percent of the population estimated to be infected with the HIV, the virus which can cause AIDS.
The director of Guardian Scientific Africa, Madeline Wasserman, told the Sunday Times: "It's hard to understand why they would buy them from one company and not accept them from us for free."
Botswana, Tanzania, and nine other African countries have already accepted the offer of free testing kits.
This is not the first time that South Africa takes a controversial position in its handling of the nation's AIDS crisis. In 2000, President Thabo Mbeki drew widespread international criticism after he publicly and repeatedly questioned the link between the HIV virus and AIDS.
The leader of the South African opposition, Tony Leon said in a statement:
"The only possible reason for declining the offer [of free kits] is that the government is still in denial about the fact that HIV causes AIDS."
Ayanda Ntsaluba, director-general of the Department of Health, was quoted by the Sunday Times as saying that accepting a donation while another company was providing similar kits "could be very problematic as it would be seen as infringing their contract".
On March 13, South Africa turned down calls to declare AIDS a national emergency, something that would have allowed it to import generic medicine regardless of the objections from the major drug firms claiming violation of patent rights.
Mbeki told parliament that the government had already passed legislation to that effect.
By TIMOTHY KALYEGIRA
Copyright 2001 by United Press International.
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