DA wants HIV/Aids ministry
2004-01-22 16:22
Special Report
The South African government has announced a joint venture to reduce the cost of anti-retroviral drugs with a Swiss company.
Cape Town - A Democratic Alliance (DA) government in South Africa would set up an HIV/Aids ministry as part of its focus on fighting the national emergency, the official opposition HIV/Aids spokesperson Mike Waters said on Thursday.
Ten years under the African National Congress (ANC) government had seen Aids develop into an emergency, "yet the ANC is still not fully committed to an antiretroviral (ARV) programme," which, he said, was a key part of the DA's health policy.
He told a media conference at parliament that "despite cabinet having begrudgingly agreed, in late 2003, to urgently roll-out anti-retrovirals, the ANC government reportedly has yet to issue tenders for the supply of ARVs for its programme. This means that the roll-out will not start before April."
In 1994 the ANC promised to "direct major resources at combating TB, AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases."
Waters said some seven million South Africans were currently infected with HIV/Aids. Without effective intervention, 423 700 people would die from Aids in 2004; life expectancy was expected to drop from 56 in 2000 to 48 in 2004; real GDP in 2010 will be 17% less due to the impact of Aids; and children orphaned by Aids will comprise 9-12% of South Africa's three to five million children by 2014.
The HIV/Aids ministry would devote its work to fighting the pandemic, "which is eating away at the very heart of South African society."
He said the DA''s Aids directorate would focus its prevention efforts on a campaign that dealt directly with Aids.
The DA would ensure that drugs to prevent pre-natal HIV-transmission were available in every public hospital and clinic, and that every nurse was trained to administer them and provide correct advice to HIV-positive mothers.
- I-Net Bridge (News24)