S.African addicts turn to AIDS medication to get high

AFP, July, 2008

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) — South African AIDS patients in Durban are under siege from drug addicts who rob them of their antiretroviral treatment to get high, the provincial health department said Wednesday.

The life prolonging drug Stocrin, one of the antiretroviral drugs used to fight AIDS, is reportedly crushed and mixed with marijuana and sold in the townships around the coastal city.

The health department has warned that the trend could spark shortages in the city's hospitals and health centres, in one of the provinces worst afflicted by the AIDS pandemic.

"This practice is disturbing, a large number of HIV patients depend on the state sponsored treatment to stay healthy," spokesman Leon Mbangwa told AFP.

The department dismissed media reports that health workers at certain hospitals were involved in selling HIV drugs to criminal rings, who then target patients when nurses cannot keep up with ...