Medicine in South Africa

I have been feeling fairly ill since I came back from the Wild Coast and now starting to recover. This morning I took a nice stroll on the beach with the sun rising over the pink sky and blue ocean. It appears like the swell is setting in for the winter so it's time to find me a shorty wetsuit for surf. The knee is less swollen today and can also eliminate the limp from my walking. I wanted to point out the insane difference between generic medicine and brand name perscriptions. I had gone to a 24 pharmacist that asked whether I wanted the generic Cipro and I said of course. The price of the brand name was 3 times that of the generic medication. Ridiculous! It's also blows me away how generics in HIV/AIDs medication is so difficult to allow into South Africa even though a health crisis is happening right on the ground. Big Pharma has much strength to allow these drugs to come through to South Africa as much as it does to create barriers from its entrance. Afterall, once they allow one country to have ARVs (HIV medication) into the country with ease, then Big Pharma will also need let all the other countries be assisted from this deadly virus, and knock a bit off profits as it actually needs to compete (no more monopoly for you). Who would want this to happen...