Chicago Tribune - August 22, 2006
Jeff Zeleny and Laurie Goering, Tribune correspondents

"There needs to be a sense of urgency and an almost clinical truth-telling about AIDS in this country for the problem to be solved," said Obama, a Democrat from Illinois. "If it is not addressed in an unambiguous fashion, the percentage of people who are infected is going [to go] off the charts."

To make his point, Obama said he would step "in front of the cameras, so people can see there's nothing stigmatizing about getting an AIDS test." The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which operates a treatment and research center in Kenya, asked Obama to be tested during his two-week trip to Africa.

On a continent where state officials rarely lead by example in combating AIDS, his actions could provide a psychological boost for testing efforts and perhaps persuade Kenyans--and other Africans--to follow his lead. It's an open question, of course, how many people would rush to clinics simply because Obama said so.

"It will encourage other people who may be less brave," said Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who met with the senator Monday afternoon. "Soon, you're not speaking about someone who is infected like they are pariahs."

South Africa has one of the world's most severe AIDS epidemics. Five million people--nearly 1 in 5 adults--are infected with HIV and close to 900 people a day are dying of AIDS-related illness, according to the United Nations. Yet its government is sharply criticized at home and abroad for its confusing and unscientific messages on AIDS.

President Thabo Mbeki has questioned whether HIV infection leads to the development of AIDS, while the country's controversial health minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, questions the safety and effectiveness of anti-retroviral drugs and promotes instead a cocktail of olive oil, beets, lemon and African potato.

"The information being provided by the ministry of health is not accurate," Obama said. "It's not scientifically correct."

The country's former vice president, Jacob Zuma, who aspires to be the country's next president, recently admitted having sex with an HIV-positive woman without using a condom. He said he reduced his risk of acquiring the virus by taking a shower after sex.

At an international AIDS conference in Toronto last week, Stephen Lewis, a UN special envoy on AIDS in Africa, accused the South African government of promoting "theories more worthy of a lunatic fringe than of a concerned and compassionate state."

Obama agreed with the assessment, saying, "It's not an issue of Western science versus African science. It's just science. And it's not right."

Many world leaders have shied away from criticizing the South African government's handling of the crisis. It was refreshing, activists said, to hear a politician even gently criticizing the government.

"It sends this message of political leadership, being prepared to be open about HIV," said Zackie Achmat, the founder of the Treatment Action Campaign, one of the country's most notable AIDS activists. "He's right. We wish that more politicians were that honest."

Obama is traveling through Africa on a two-week, fact-finding congressional delegation. While he said it was not appropriate to directly criticize the South African president, he added: "All leaders have a responsibility to speak honestly and clearly about these issues and to address the realities of what's happening."

In most African countries, only a tiny percentage of people have been tested for AIDS. The disease, usually spread by heterosexual sex and multiple partners in Africa, continues to carry heavy social stigma, and many Africans prefer to die of it rather than undergo testing, acknowledge their status and seek treatment.

Here in Khayelitsha, an impoverished township outside Cape Town that is crowded with mile after mile of tin-roof huts with black tires on the roofs and colorful graffiti on the walls, Obama toured an AIDS treatment hospital.

A line of patients waiting on wooden benches said they had never heard of Obama, but they hoped he could help solve some of Africa's problems.

"George Bush doesn't do much," said Siyabonga Mzolomba, 27, a security guard who brought his sister to seek treatment for tuberculosis. "Somebody who's half-African can do a lot."

He said he hopes the U.S. would increase investment to South Africa to create more factory jobs in places like Khayelitsha, where unemployment tops 40 percent. While he conceded that AIDS is a grave problem here, he noted that men routinely do not practice safe sex.

Yet like many others, Mzolomba said he had no plans to take an AIDS test.

"I'm scared [of the results]," he said. "I will wait and see if I get sick."

In a late-afternoon address before the South African Institute for International Affairs, where many in the audience asked the senator pointed questions about U.S. foreign policy, Obama said AIDS was among the long string of challenges facing Africa.

"Now, more than ever, we must care about each other's problems," Obama said, speaking to a think-tank audience of more than 200 people. "Not just when there's a missile pointed at us or a dictator on the march, but wherever conditions exist that could give rise to human suffering on a massive scale."

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jzeleny@tribune.com

lgoering@tribune.com

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