South African Minister of Health, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, has launched a stinging response following comments made by Stephen Lewis, United Nations special envoy on HIV/Aids in Africa, at the 15th International Aids Conference in Thailand on Wednesday.
Lewis told the conference that South Africa is not doing enough in the fight against HIV/Aids. He added that South Africa, with far greater resources at its disposal than its neighbours, was — ironically — not leading the way in treating and preventing the disease.
Lewis, who was quoted in South Africa’s Business Day, also said that ”the impoverished countries in Africa are moving heaven and earth to implement treatment”.
He added that ”they are determined to respond to a pandemic decimating their populations” — despite having far less money and infrastructure at their disposal than South Africa.
This, according to Lewis, contrasts sharply with the situation in South Africa where only 6 000 out of about 400 000 people in need of anti-Aids drugs are receiving them.
Tshabalala-Msimang replied to the comments by saying that ”he [Lewis] is not well-informed either about the progress being made in South Africa’s comprehensive programme to fight HIV and Aids, or about the views of the UN and its agencies about our [South Africa’s] programme.”
”Clear guidelines and protocols” to manage the implementation of a plan to deal with the problem of HIV/Aids are needed, said Tshabalala-Msimang, adding that a ”trial and error exercise” would lead to a ”waste of [the] money and infrastructure [Lewis] refers to”.
Tshabalala-Msimang also said Lewis’ comments seem to be directly aimed at ”generating confusion” around the government’s decision to discard a programme of monotherapy (treating patients with one drug) in favour of a combination therapy.
A statement released on Friday by Tshabalala-Msimang invited Lewis to ”visit our country and realise how little he knows about the South African Health System”.