South African President Reveals New Policy on HIV/AIDS Treatment

The speech on Tuesday by Mr Zuma, delivered as a part of World AIDS Day, distances the current South African President from the policies and stance of his predecessor Thabo Mbeki, the man whose last 7-8 months in office were actually completed with Kgalema Motlanthe as "caretaker President". As the BBC reports Mr Mbeki was adamant that there was no link between HIV and AIDS. Furthermore the Associated Press notes that the Health Minister who served under Mr Mbeki was suspicious of drugs that were used to prolong the lives of those with AIDS, instead encouraging the use of treatments involving beets and garlic. It is estimated that as many as 300,000 people may have lost their lives because of the tardiness shown by Mr Mbeki's government in making anti-retroviral drugs available to those who had tested HIV positive. There are currently more than 5.5 million people in South Africa who have tested HIV positive, and 59,000 babies are being born each year with the immunodeficiency virus. Yet only those with the lowest levels of immunity receive treatment at the present time. Pregnant women are one of the groups Mr Zuma has announced will receive prompter treatment for HIV. According to the Associated Press the South African government is aiming to have 80 percent of those requiring drugs to tackle acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), the disease that results from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), in receipt of the appropriate treatment by 2011. The availability of sufficient funds may be one major obstacle to the fulfillment of that aim and a request made to the U.S. for financial assistance has met with a positive response. Donald Gips, U.S. ambassador to South Africa, said in a statement on Tuesday that $120 million would be forthcoming over a two-year period to assist in the purchase of anti-retroviral drugs. South Africa is already a recipient of funds from the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), with U.S. officials confirming that in 2010-11 those funds will increase from the current budget year's figure of $550 million to $560 million. The funding announced by Mr Gips is in addition to that provided under PEPFAR. Representatives of private groups at the forefront of the fight against HIV/AIDS in South Africa have welcomed the new policies being adopted by the government of Mr Zuma but have emphasized that change in a country where 1.4 million children have been orphaned by AIDS, with a possibility that there will be 5.7 million such orphans by 2015, will not be immediate. Miriam Mhazo, of the Society for Family Health, noted:

You start in small steps

Whilst the number of those contracting HIV in South Africa, a country with a population of some 50 million that has more people living with HIV than any other nation, has reportedly stabilized the BBC warns that deaths linked to AIDS are expected to rise over the next few years. Mr Zuma reinforced his commitment to the fight against HIV/AIDS, he spoke of a new "era of openness" for his country, by telling his audience in Pretoria that he is making arrangements for his own HIV test, having been tested on previous occasions and declaring himself certain of his status. However Mr Zuma once told a court, where he was on trial for the alleged rape of a family friend who was HIV-positive, that showering after sex helped lower the risk of AIDS. The trial, which took place in 2006, ended in Mr Zuma's acquittal.