Share & more
South African Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has defended the poor uptake of the country's free AIDS drug rollout by saying she could not force people to use antiretrovirals.
A local newspaper, Business Day, quoted Tshabalala-Msimang as saying: "I cannot go out into the streets and pull the people and say now come and take antiretrovirals ... it really depends on them. And they know where the facilities are because they were published [in] the districts."
The free HIV/AIDS plan was unveiled last November. The initial target of treating up to 53,000 people by this March was earlier this year revised and extended to the end of next March.
Although recent figures show 11,200 people are on treatment, wide variations remain in the number of people receiving treatment in the different provinces.
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