Aids Day: UN Aids chief in SA
2009-11-30 22:17
Special Report
The South African government has announced a joint venture to reduce the cost of anti-retroviral drugs with a Swiss company.
Johannesburg - The head of the UN Aids programme says South Africa is the ideal place for him to visit on World Aids Day.
South Africa has an estimated 5.7 million people infected with HIV - more than any other country in the world. Nearly 1 000 South Africans die every day of Aids-related diseases.
Michel Sidibe, speaking to The Associated Press in Johannesburg on Monday, on the eve of World Aids Day, said the new government was determined to end the crisis.
Sidibe says President Jacob Zuma "is committed to making change happen".
Zuma succeeded Thabo Mbeki, who questioned the link between HIV and Aids. Mbeki's health minister promoted beets and garlic as Aids treatments.
Zuma and his health minister have said past policies were wrong and set a target to get 80% of those who need Aids drugs on them by 2011.
A Harvard study has concluded that more than 30 000 premature deaths in South Africa could have been prevented had officials here acted sooner to provide drug treatments to Aids patients and to prevent pregnant women with HIV from passing the virus to their children.
Mbeki's own party forced him to step down late last year after almost a decade as president, and President Jacob Zuma took over following April elections. Zuma and his health minister have said Mbeki's AIDS policies were wrong and set a target to get 80% of those who need Aids drugs on them by 2011.
Priviliged
Zuma is scheduled to give a major speech on Aids on Tuesday. Sidibe said he hoped the president would address the social and financial issues related to fighting Aids.
"People who are privileged, who have resources ... they are fortunate. They will not die, probably, from HIV," Sidibe said.
"But you have millions of other people ... who are not having access to health systems and services."
Increasing the number of people on Aids drugs will require more money at a time when the global recession has many worried funding for health will decrease and Sidibe pleaded with donors: "Please, make your adjustments with a human face."
But he said more could be done with existing resources, such as taking steps to improve management. He also said the costs of treating Aids in the long run would be reduced is new infections were reduced.
"We need prevention, prevention, prevention," he said.
- AP