Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2008. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Sunday Times (Johannesburg) - October 14, 2008
Claire Keeton
At the opening of the International AIDS Vaccine Conference 2008 in Cape Town the new Minister of Health, Barbara Hogan, repeatedly stressed the importance of scientific, "evidence-based responses" to stop HIV.
More than 900 of the world's vaccine scientists are at the ninth annual meeting, being held for the first time outside of the US and Europe.
Hogan said to the South African government and people about the vaccine conference: "There can't be any other more important meeting at this time."
Vice-Chancellor of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Professor Malegapuru Makgoba, won applause from the delegates when he welcomed the new attitude to HIV science by the ministers.
"We (can say) confidently that HIV causes Aids without threats. It is liberating."
In striking contrast to the previous health minister, Hogan acknowledged that South Africa had "lost ground" to the epidemic and that Aids was killing young South Africans.
She said the government was committed "to scale-up mother-to-child prevention programmes" and stated that HIV and TB were the primary health challenges in South Africa.
"We know that HIV causes AIDS," said Hogan, a point that former president Thabo Mbeki publicly contested.
Dr Alan Bernstein, executive director of the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise - the lead sponsor of the conference - added: "What the minister had to say, from the point of view of the enterprise, was a breath of fresh air. We are very happy to have the minister talking the way she didàit is extremely encouraging. We could not have had a more positive speech."
He underlined that the search for an HIV vaccine required long-term, vigorous political support.
Hogan said "that an effective HIV vaccine has to be found". She added that government was committed to its goal of halving the rate of new infections by 2011 in line with the new HIV/Aids Strategic Plan.
The health minister also promised to make sure that unethical people would not be allowed to experiment with vitamins on people with HIV, another difference to her predecessor Dr "Beetroot" Manto Tshabalala-Msimang.
Deputy minister for Science and Technology, Derek Hanekom, praised activists in the Treatment Action Campaign for pushing forward the HIV agenda in South Africa - which he described as the "eye of the storm" of the HIV/Aids epidemic.
He urged everyone in HIV prevention "to intensify our efforts".
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