SOUTH AFRICA’S president, Jacob Zuma, yesterday pledged to undergo a HIV test in an attempt to draw a line under an era of political inertia blamed for hundreds of thousands of deaths.
In a speech on World Aids Day, Mr Zuma told crowds in Pretoria that all HIV-positive babies under the age of one will receive anti-retroviral drugs as part of a huge expansion of treatment.
The declaration marked a final break with the stance of his predecessor and rival Thabo Mbeki, whose unwillingness to act has been cited for the world’s highest HIV caseload and the premature deaths of 300,000 people. There are growing calls for Mr Mbeki to apologise or even face charges of genocide.
Yet Mr Zuma himself was once seen as an unlikely anti-Aids crusader. In 2006, while being tried on charges of raping a HIV-positive family friend, he was ridiculed for testifying that he took a shower after sex to lower the risk of Aids. He was acquitted of rape.
In his address to the nation yesterday, Mr Zuma signalled a determination to help the estimated 5.7 million South Africans infected with HIV and the 59,000 babies born infected each year.
“Let there be no more shame, no more blame, no more discrimination and no more stigma,” he said. “Let the politicisation and endless debates about HIV and Aids stop.” He said the government will distribute life-prolonging anti-retroviral drugs to significantly more people infected with the virus. From April all HIV-positive children under one year will get anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs). Pregnant women and patients with both tuberculosis and Aids will receive treatment if their CD4 or T-cell counts are 350 or less.
Currently public hospitals dispense ARVs when HIV deteriorates to Aids and patients’ CD4 counts are below 200. It was unclear exactly how many more people would now be covered, or how the government would meet the cost, although the US announced a $120 million aid package over two years yesterday.
Mr Zuma compared the scale of the struggle to that against apartheid. “Together we fought and defeated a system so corrupt and reviled that it was described as a crime against humanity,” he said. “Together we can overcome this challenge. I am making arrangements for my own test. I have taken HIV tests before, and I know my status. I will do another test soon as part of this new campaign. I urge you to start planning for your own tests.”
Mr Mbeki was roundly criticised for questioning the link between HIV and Aids and failing to make ARVs widely available. His health minister was lampooned for recommending garlic and beetroot as treatments.
A Harvard study concluded that more than 300,000 deaths in South Africa could have been prevented if officials had acted sooner to provide drug treatments to Aids patients and to prevent pregnant women with HIV from passing the virus to their children. Aids claims about 1,000 lives a day.
– (Guardian service)