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) - December 2, 2008
Nivashni Nair
AFTER years of anger, South Africa yesterday commemorated World Aids Day, confident for the first time that the government is responding effectively to the epidemic.
Mark Heywood, deputy chair of the SA National Aids Council, said: "The war is over. This doesn't mean that there won't be disputes and that the Treatment Action Campaign will be muted when we have issues to raise - but it means that the level of resistance that we once encountered is over.
"Today is the day we start working and we are glad that this is a new beginning."
Heywood, speaking in Durban at an event to commemorate the 20th anniversary of World Aids Day, was referring to the recent appointment of Barbara Hogan as health minister and the sea change she has brought to the government's response to HIV-Aids.
"Today is an unprecedented show of unity and it is not fake unity. For the first time, the government is taking this epidemic seriously and is doing something about it," Heywood said.
He said it was obvious to South Africa and the rest of the world that former president Thabo Mbeki and former health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang had been responsible for the slow, and at times incoherent, response to the HIV-Aids epidemic in this country.
Last month The Times reported that a study by the Harvard School of Public Health in the US had found that more than 330000 lives had been lost because of the failure of Mbeki and Tshabalala-Msimang in the provision of HIV-Aids drugs between 2000 and 2005.
# The Harvard report blamed the deaths on the reluctance of the Mbeki-led government to implement a feasible and timely antiretroviral treatment programme.
# The study found that almost 35000 babies were born with HIV between 2000 and 2005 because Mbeki and his health minister had failed to make widely available the drug nevirapine, which prevents mother-to-child transmission of the virus.
Hogan, who attended the Durban event, said a new day had dawned in the fight against HIV-Aids.
She said: "We have got off to a marvellous start; we are united in fighting this disease. We have been sitting here in unity with politicians, traditional leaders, unionists, the National Aids Council and civil society, and we are gaining momentum to reach our goals of reducing infections and up-scaling antiretroviral treatment to curb mother-to-child transmissions.
"I am very hopeful and I can clearly see that we are [going] places."
Former UNAids director Peter Piot said he was impressed by the partnership the government had formed with civil society to fight the epidemic - a first for South Africa.
"It is clear that a new morning has begun in South Africa. I am glad to note that the health department will be accountable for reaching its strategic goals and that we have tackled the leadership problem. It is a signal of powerful hope."
Deputy President Baleka Mbete admitted that a lot remained to be done to curb the epidemic and assist all those affected by it.
She promised that the government would promote universal access to the prevention, treatment, care and support programmes set out in the national strategic plan for HIV-Aids.
"Our goal ... is geared towards halving new infections by 2011. For us to achieve this, we must own up, spread and practise the key messages for the prevention of HIV infections, " Mbete said.
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