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Nevirapine continues to be dispensed

    JOHANNESBURG

    South Africa's department of health will continue to dispense Nevirapine until further research into the reliability of the drug in preventing HIV transmission from mother to child is conducted.

    Concerns about the safety of Nevirapine surfaced after collaborative research conducted by the Medicines Control Council (MCC), manufacturer Boehringer Ingelheim and the National Institute for Communicable Diseases revealed that some HIV positive mothers had developed resistance to the antiretroviral, making it uncertain whether transmission of the virus was being blocked or not.

    Departmental spokesperson Sibani Mngadi told the official news agency, BuaNews, "there is another long-term treatment option for HIV positive mothers, which consists of a combination of drugs", should Nevirapine be discarded.

    The department is currently waiting for further research results, to be presented at the International AIDS conference in Bangkok, Thailand, next month. "We will act on this issue depending on decisions taken there," Mngadi said.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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