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SA's forgotten children
12/10/2007 14:55 - (SA)
Johannesburg - South Africa is neglecting
most of the 100 000 children born there every year with HIV/Aids and half of them are likely to die before the age of 2, a senior UN official said on Tuesday.
"This is unacceptable," Ann Veneman, executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), told Reuters in an interview. "The child really has been in some ways forgotten."
Although the country faces one of world's heaviest HIV
caseloads, Aids activists accuse the government of dragging its
feet while the disease ravages millions of South Africans.
Veneman called on both the government and community leaders
to end what she called a state of denial and to recognise the
magnitude of the problem.
Inadequate treatment
Despite being amongst the most vulnerable of those infected,
only a small proportion of children get adequate treatment - 10
to 15%. That, said Veneman, is a slight improvement on 5% two years ago, when Unicef launched an initiative to
"put the missing face of the child on the Aids pandemic".
"They are missing so much. They are missing their parents
because so many are orphans. They are missing teachers because
so many are infected," she added.
"They are missing health care workers. There are so many
people that are impacted by this disease that children really
have been the ones that are left out."
Some progress
Veneman noted some progress on her four-day visit to South
Africa, during which she discussed efforts to alleviate
suffering with Nelson Mandela, who has his own Aids charity. She
also met pregnant women and mothers infected with HIV/Aids.
She said death statistics were nevertheless still
astonishing. An estimated 12% of South Africa's 47
million population have HIV.
"There are 500 000 new infections every year," including
100 000 children, said Veneman, adding, "There are 400 000
people who die every year."
South African officials, including President Thabo Mbeki,
have infuriated Aids activists by questioning accepted Aids
science and endorsing unproven treatments.
Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has been dubbed
"Dr Beetroot" for her promotion of beetroot, garlic and other
foods as a treatment for HIV/Aids.
Veneman agreed the government should take a stronger, more
vocal stand. But she said the problem cannot be tackled by the
authorities alone. A new mindset was needed across South Africa,
where HIV/Aids is still a taboo subject.
Hope
"I think it's very difficult if people don't stand up and
speak about it. And I think that has to be done at every level
of society, from local and community organisations to the top
levels of government," she said.
The South African government was originally a reluctant
convert to anti-retroviral medications (ARVs), which are
credited with drastically reducing AIDS deaths. But Mbeki's
government has since changed course, making ARVs a pillar of its
plan to fight HIV/Aids.
It envisions a targeted five-fold increase in the number of
HIV-positive people accessing ARVs by 2011 - but some 700 000
needy South Africans currently cannot get the medication.
"There is a ray of hope. But there are great challenges in
terms of implementing plans and much needs to be done," said
Veneman.
- Reuters
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