HIV/Aids experts and activists have welcomed the recent court ruling that specially trained pharmacists may prescribe medicine to HIV/Aids and TB patients, alleviating the burden on the health system.

As previously reported, the SA Pharmacy Council has been given the judicial go-ahead to introduce its Pharmacy-Initiated Management of Antiretroviral Treatment initiative, which will allow specially trained pharmacists to manage and prescribe medicine to patients with HIV and tuberculosis.

Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) Judge Elmarie van der Schyff has dismissed an application brought by a doctors’ organisation – the Independent Practitioner Association (IPA) Foundation – for the setting aside of the programme.

She said the pilot project had emphasised the value of the initiative, which is in line with the WHO vision to promote widely accessible primary healthcare.

The Mail & Guardian reports that the IPA argued in its application that the pharmacy council had not given it enough time to comment on the proposed initiative because doctors had been in the midst of dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic.

Treatment Action Campaign chairperson Sibongile Tshabalala welcomed the ruling. 

‘The challenges that we are facing in the country include one of people queuing for a long time in facilities … and also the attitude of nurses in health facilities, which chases away so many people from facilities.’

Tshabalala said SA is also chasing the UNAIDS’ target to end HIV/Aids by 2030, and it has not achieved the target of ensuring that 95% of all people living with HIV are tested and know their status, that 95% of those seek and have access to uninterrupted treatment, and that 95% of those are virally suppressed – the 95-95-95 target.

Full Mail & Guardian report