Africa welcomes news of cheaper drug to prevent newborn HIV transmission

Hospitals in South Africa are heavily burdened by HIV- infected children VIDEO CNN's Cynde Strand reports from South Africa, where as many as one in five tested are infected with HIV Windows Media 28K 80K  ALSO: Newsday: New AIDS Medication May Reduce Transmission of Virus from Mother to Child Affordable drug reduces mother-to-child HIV transmission, study says

From Correspondent Cynde Strand

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (CNN) -- The news that an affordable drug, nevirapine, can dramatically reduce mother- to-child transmission of HIV is being particularly welcomed in sub-Saharan Africa, where AIDS threatens to cripple much of the continent.

In South Africa, for example, about a quarter of the pregnant women are HIV-positive. At a private clinic, the cost of a short course of the drug AZT, now the standard treatment to prevent the transmission of HIV to newborns, costs $120 -- a price most people can't afford.

And though state-run hospitals could provide the AZT treatment for about $60, the government says it, too, cannot afford the cost of AZT.

"There are very many competing priorities in South Africa," said Dr. Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, South Africa's health minister. "We are just in the transition period. Everything needs money."

By contrast, nevirapine costs just $4 a dose. Researchers from the United States and Uganda found that administering just two doses -- one during labor and another three days after birth -- is even more effective that the short course of AZT.

"It provides a much more feasible way to obtain the same kind of reductions in transmission as we get with four weeks (of AZT,)" said Dr. James McIntyre, director of the Perinatal HIV Research Unit at Johannesburg's Baragwanath Hospital "It is obviously going to cost less, but it is also much less of a burden on the health service."

Indeed, the failure to treat HIV-positive pregnant women has meant that hospitals in South Africa have been heavily burdened by HIV-infected children.

"We are being overwhelmed in pediatric wards with the effects of HIV and AIDS," said McIntyre. "Almost a third of the admissions to most pediatric wards in large hospitals in this country are a result of AIDS."

Tshabalala-Msimang says the South African government will explore the possibility of providing nevirapine.

"I'm sure our researchers would be very keen to collaborate with the researchers in Uganda so that we can see whether the results are such that they would persuade us to review our positions," he says. "We are looking for a drug that is affordable."