United Press International - December 8, 2000
Eli J. Lake

Over the next five years, the United States has pledged $40 million to South Africa for the fight against AIDS, with $1.8 million of that going to the Baragwanath Chris Hani Hospital in Soweto, where she addressed a crowd of patients and doctors.

"We must mobilize and respond to this threat by recognizing it for what it is -- not only a risk to public health, but a national security concern," Albright said.

As she wraps up her tenure as secretary of state, the Baragwanath visit stands out for her legacy of targeting the spread of AIDS as a national security concern.

AIDS is particularly devastating in Africa. In 1999, the U.S. Agency for International Development estimated that 20 percent of the adult population -- more than 4 million people -- was HIV positive. Estimates show that 2 million children will be orphaned by 2005 if current trends continue. And by 2008, the life expectancy in South Africa will drop to 40 years if the trend continues.

Billboards dot the roads in South Africa with slogans saying, "the future ain't what it used to be," part of a private awareness campaign called "Love Life" aimed at removing the stigma associated with the disease. Love Life which has taken out ads in magazines, newspapers and even has a television show, but ignorance of AIDS abounds.

One problem here is cultural. Some men still believe that having sexual intercourse with a virgin will cure them of the infection.

Lizzy Gama a patient at the Baragwanath Hospital said, "if the community knows you are HIV positive they will point at you and say, 'ahh, look she is getting thinner, now she has bandages.'"

Gama contracted HIV in 1990 and lost her child in 1994. Her husband left her for another woman. She said President Thabo Mbeki "must increase education about HIV so that people must understand."

Mbeki has yet to dispel the myth about virgins and has not publicly said HIV even causes AIDS. Mbeki has also been slow to implement his 5-year AIDS plan that includes general targets for increasing condom use and establishing more treatment centers. David Allen, a senior HIV/Adviser on loan from the Center for Disease Control to the South African Ministry of Health, said "we support what is written in the plan," but admitted "we need to develop specific objectives."

Baragwanath specializes in conducting research on perinatal care, the period between seven months of pregnancy to about four weeks after giving birth. This time is crucial in treating mother-to-child transmissions of the disease, and as such the hospital has become a leading center in researching ways to control the spread of AIDS in this area.

And while Baragwanath is a success story in terms of U.S. investment, not all U.S.-led AIDS relief has met with approval in South Africa. Take a plan from the Export/Import bank to loan $1 billion to sub-Saharan African countries for the purchase of AIDS drugs. South Africa and numerous other countries rejected the plan on the grounds that they could not afford the drugs at the market price and that the loan at market rates would only add to their national debt.

South African AIDS activists have pushed for the rights to produce generic AIDS drugs such as AZT, which can cost up to 400 rand ($55) for a single dose. In October, the Treatment Action Campaign here went to Thailand to purchase a stock of Fluconazole, a drug used to treat a form of meningitis and Thrash two symptoms associated with AIDS. The latter inflames the throat so as to make it nearly impossible to swallow. Earlier this fall the group announced it would sell a generic version of the drug for 2 rand (33 cents).

Last Spring, major AIDS drug producers announced that they would work with South Africa to provide drugs at cheaper prices. But this initiative has gone nowhere. On Nov. 27 the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America issued a report expressing dismay about Pretoria's commitment to negotiating the agreement, adding concern about the government's "apparent questioning of the link between HIV and AIDS."

Upon leaving the hospital Albright said she had just met with some pharmaceutical companies "I just met before I left with representatives of several drug companies to get them to be even more proactive," she said.
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