Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2006. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
South African Press Association - August 16, 2006
Fran Blandy
"People say, 'Your stall is great.' I don't know what they are reporting on at home. We haven't shocked the world; we have told the truth," she told South Africans at the home of Nogolide Nojozi, the country's consul general in Toronto.
The South African display at the opening of the exhibition positioned garlic, lemon, beetroot and African potato alongside two bottles of anti-retrovirals.
She does not mind being called "Dr Beetroot", Tshabalala-Msimang told the intimate gathering.
Her methods are educational to South Africans, she said, adding that the media have ignored the presence of anti-retrovirals and other items in the exhibition. Her main goal is "prevention, prevention, prevention", she emphasised.
"I was taught prevention is better than cure, and nutrition is good. I don't believe those things have changed."
Describing the get-together as less intense than conference rooms with a "less charged atmosphere than at home", Tshabalala-Msimang said she has never attended an Aids conference where South Africa was not bashed. This is because South Africa has held firm and not allowed others to dictate its policies.
Previous Aids conferences, such as that in Durban in 2000, did not mention nutrition as important in the fight against the disease.
"Today nutrition is the theme of the conference ... and that is South Africa. We have been persistent in saying we must improve health in our country; it is no good just flooding the country with medicines."
She said the epidemic is also now referred to as "HIV and Aids" by leaders in the field, instead of "HIV/Aids". "It doesn't mean if you [have] HIV, tomorrow you will die ... that is South Africa."
South Africa's comprehensive plan is widely appreciated, as evidenced in the use of the word "comprehensive" in terms of Aids, for the first time.
With five million people infected with HIV, South Africa has a prevalence rate among the highest in the world. "You can't toyi-toyi about this [Aids]; you can't politicise it," said Tshabalala-Msimang. It is the responsibility of all South Africans to address the problem, as all are faced with health and developmental issues.
Medicine pricing will still be an important issue. "It is a development issue and we can't run away from that. It is not about making profit."
Prevention took centre stage on the third day of the conference with new technologies and methods, including microbicides and male circumcision, up for discussion. Expressing reservations about male circumcision, Tshabalala-Msimang said: "You can't make policy on one study," in reference to a South African survey that showed a decline in HIV prevalence among circumcised men.
The event at the consul general's home was attended by Minister of Social Development Zola Skweyiya, several provincial health ministers and the deputy minister of correctional services. Various South Africans affiliated to the conference and Aids-related groups also attended.
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