AEGiS-AP: S. African Appeals for AIDS Action

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1998. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

S. African Appeals for AIDS Action

Associated Press - Friday October 9, 1998
Daniel J. Wakin, Associated Press Writer

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) _ Deputy President Thabo Mbeki, in an unusual live broadcast, acknowledged on Friday that South Africa had closed its eyes to AIDS and appealed for a nationwide effort to fight the disease. Otherwise, "Our dreams as a people will be shattered," he said.

Mbeki's speech was part of a major information campaign launched Friday. Flags flew at half-staff to remember the estimated 360,000 people who have died of the disease here. The government urged South Africans in advertisements and on radio shows to stop and listen to the broadcast.

Rates of infection for the virus that causes the disease, HIV, have exploded in southern Africa after ravaging other parts of the continent.

The U.N. AIDS program estimates that nearly 3 million South Africans are infected with HIV, with 1,500 new infections each day. Infection rates among pregnant women in some areas reaches 30 percent.

The government has blamed the rapid spread on the legacy of apartheid, which ignored the disease among the majority black population. It also says large-scale economic migration, ignorance about AIDS and the stigma associated with it are other factors in its spread.

"For too long we have closed our eyes as a nation, hoping the truth was not so real," Mbeki said. "For many years, we have allowed (the AIDS virus) to spread, and at a rate in our country which is one of the fastest in the world." Now, "HIV-AIDS walks with us. It travels with us wherever we go. ... We have experienced AIDS in the groans of wasted lives. We have carried it in small and big coffins to many graveyards."

Mbeki called on young people to abstain from sex or at least use a condom. He urged all South Africans to "spread the message of prevention."

All ministries and sectors of society _ business, sports, entertainment _ have been called on to come up with AIDS education programs, condom distribution plans, fund raising and the like.

The approach is typical of the latest thinking in African countries. Many opinion makers and AIDS activists say that all parts of the government and society, not just health authorities, need to respond with major prevention programs.

The best example is Uganda, whose major public education effort helped make it the only country in sub-Saharan Africa where infection rates have dropped.
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