ZIMBABWE: Crackdown urged on illegal AIDS drugs sales

JOHANNESBURG, 2 Aug 2004 (PLUSNEWS) - Health authorities in Zimbabwe have called for an urgent crackdown on the cross-border sales of anti-AIDS drugs to people living with HIV/AIDS.

According to media reports, traders have been smuggling the drugs from countries where they are more readily available, like South Africa, Botswana and Namibia.

Zimbabwe's Ministry of Health expressed concern that the trade was dangerous, as HIV-positive people required constant contact with health professionals to ensure the drugs were working and caused no serious side effects.

"The problem we have now is some of the cross-border traders are importing antiretrovirals and selling them to people without a prescription, and this is dangerous," the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) quoted Zimbabwe's spokesperson for health, Christine Chakanyuka, as saying.

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