Activism which drove the HIV/Aids programme should be used to fight other diseases, said Section 27 executive director Mark Heywood during a visit to East London at the weekend.
Heywood, one of the central campaigners to force government to supply retrovirals to HIV-sufferers, spent some time speaking to the Daily Dispatch on the power of activism.
He urged those concerned with the fight against cancer and mental illness to adopt a similar model in order for lives to be saved.
Heywood insisted that activism was still as necessary now as it was when the action treatment campaign first took up the battle for the distribution of antiretrovirals (ARVs) and pro moted messages which broke down the social stigmatisation of HIV/Aids sufferers.
Section 27 is a public interest law centre which seeks to influence, develop and use the law to protect, promote and advance human rights in healthcare.
“ Motsoaledi says three million people are on ARV medicines. When you have a problem like stockouts, it threatens tens of thousands of people’s lives.
And if you don’t address issues like stockouts, what it’s going to do is actually lead to the collapse of the ARV programme which will be at an enormous cost,” Heywood said.
He said activism by doctors, health workers and the Treat ment Action Campaign (TAC) had driven the ARV programme to where it benefited millions of lives.
“But activism is necessary to continue to protect that programme in future. And activism is also necessary because we’ve seen with HIV what you can achieve.
“And yet there are many other diseases, whether it’s mental health issues or whether it’s cancer, where there has been no activism and people continue to be denied even the most basic services and medicines they need in order to treat those conditions,” he said.
Heywood said that the responsibility of healthcare workers was to look beyond the patients they saw, to the environment they worked in and ask themselves to what extent the system is helping them fulfil their ethical obligations to always act in the best interest of their patients. — vuyiswav@dispatch.co.za
HIV activism should drive fight against other diseases
Heywood, one of the central campaigners to force government to supply retrovirals to HIV-sufferers, spent some time speaking to the Daily Dispatch on the power of activism.
He urged those concerned with the fight against cancer and mental illness to adopt a similar model in order for lives to be saved.
Heywood insisted that activism was still as necessary now as it was when the action treatment campaign first took up the battle for the distribution of antiretrovirals (ARVs) and pro moted messages which broke down the social stigmatisation of HIV/Aids sufferers.
Section 27 is a public interest law centre which seeks to influence, develop and use the law to protect, promote and advance human rights in healthcare.
“ Motsoaledi says three million people are on ARV medicines. When you have a problem like stockouts, it threatens tens of thousands of people’s lives.
And if you don’t address issues like stockouts, what it’s going to do is actually lead to the collapse of the ARV programme which will be at an enormous cost,” Heywood said.
He said activism by doctors, health workers and the Treat ment Action Campaign (TAC) had driven the ARV programme to where it benefited millions of lives.
“But activism is necessary to continue to protect that programme in future. And activism is also necessary because we’ve seen with HIV what you can achieve.
“And yet there are many other diseases, whether it’s mental health issues or whether it’s cancer, where there has been no activism and people continue to be denied even the most basic services and medicines they need in order to treat those conditions,” he said.
Heywood said that the responsibility of healthcare workers was to look beyond the patients they saw, to the environment they worked in and ask themselves to what extent the system is helping them fulfil their ethical obligations to always act in the best interest of their patients. — vuyiswav@dispatch.co.za
Would you like to comment on this article?
Register (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Trending Now
Latest Videos