In some parts of KwaZulu-Natal, patients struggle to access free anti-retroviral drugs in hospitals designated to provide them. But the same drugs can be bought over the counter, illegally, at some chemists in the province.
This Tuesday Special Assignment reveals that certain pharmacies sell ARVs without a doctor’s prescription – as required by law – and that drug users are getting high by smoking the pills intended for those with HIV. Doctors believe that if these practices continue, a drug resistant strain of HIV could be created, even as the country battles with drug resistant strains of TB.
We travel to Mayville Catocrest, an informal settlement near eThekwini, where we meet Photo Mbhele. Even though HIV+ Mbhele has been treated for TB six times and suffers from other opportunistic infections, he can’t access ARVs. To do so he needs his CD4 count results – and he’s been waiting for them for over a month.
According to government policy, Mbhele qualifies for ARVs - but bureaucratic inefficiency has thus far stopped him from joining the programme. Meanwhile his health continues to deteriorate. His girlfriend and the mother of his child died in December after waiting ten months for her CD4 count results. Mbhele says if he had money, he would buy ARVs like other patients in his situation do.
We also visit a pharmacy in Isipingo where we manage to buy ARVs buy over the counter, without producing a doctor’s prescription. We later confront the pharmacist, who denies having sold ARVs to us – despite evidence to the contrary.
In one of the Umlazi townships, we spend time with drug users who are smoking Stocrin – one of the tablets meant for HIV+ patients – to get high. They tell us who introduced them to the drug, how much they buy it for and who sells it.
The KZN health department claims it only takes only three days for patients around Durban to receive their CD4 count results, while for those patients in rural areas it doesn’t take longer than seven days. But the department acknowledge that sometimes blood samples get lost and patients are required to repeat the process.
Over the counter is produced by Thuli Nhlapo and was filmed by Jan de Klerk
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