Barack Obama, the only black United States Senator, criticised South African leaders on Monday for their slow response to HIV/Aids, saying they were wrong to contrast ”African science and Western science”.
Aids activists say Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang is creating deadly confusion by pushing traditional medicines and a recipe of garlic, beetroot, lemon and African potatoes to combat HIV/Aids while underplaying the role of anti-retrovirals (ARVs).
”The minister of health here has tended to equate traditional medicines to anti-retrovirals, so on the treatment side the information being provided by the minister of health is not accurate,” he said.
”It is not an issue of Western science versus African science, it is just science and it’s not right,” Obama told reporters outside an HIV/Aids clinic in Cape Town’s Khayelitsha township.
Tshabalala-Msimang has frequently questioned the efficacy and safety of ARVs and says her approach is aimed at promoting basic nutrition as a bulwark against becoming ill.
South Africa has one of the world’s highest HIV/Aids caseloads with one out of nine people — or five million South Africans — infected.
The government relented to pressure in 2003 and launched a public ARV programme which officials describe as one of the largest in the world. But activists say drugs still only reach a fraction of those living with HIV/Aids, which still kills more than 800 South Africans every day.
Speaking during the South African leg of an African tour, Obama — an Illinois Democrat whose father was Kenyan — said the battle against HIV/Aids was being confounded by denial both within black communities and by the government.
”I think that is something that is going to have to be addressed, you have got enormous infection rates [but] there is not enough public education,” he said.
There had to be a fundamental change in behaviour and that change would not happen until the leadership stood up and spoke about the importance of safe sex practices.
Men, in particular, needed to be better educated about the risk they posed to women through unprotected sex, Obama said, adding he hoped to pass this message onto Mbeki and other government ministers.
Obama met health workers at the clinic and talked to HIV infected mothers linked to Mothers2Mothers, a US-sponsored support programme to help stop the transmission of HIV to babies.
Ray of hope
Meanwhile, KwaZulu-Natal has put the highest number of people living with HIV/Aids on anti-retroviral treatment than any other province in South Africa, the provincial health department said on Monday.
Departmental spokesperson Mbali Thusi said the number of people receiving the treatment was at least 54 000, having steadily grown from 100 patients when the roll-out of the drugs was started in May 2004.
Health MEC Peggy Nkonyeni said the number of centres accredited to administer the drugs had also grown from eight to 60 in the same period.
”This is part of the comprehensive plan for care, management and treatment of HIV and Aids,” said Nkonyeni.
Thusi said the centres provided anti-retroviral treatment only to people with Aids or those with CD4+ count less than 200 and also offered ongoing counselling, psychological support and nutritional services to those who did not require the treatment. Those facilities were available in all health districts in the province and catered for all adults, including pregnant women, and children.
Thusi said the plan was also aimed at people exposed to HIV such as sexual assault victims with counselling, provision of post-exposure prophylaxis and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases.
Down referral of all stable patients to clinics closer to their homes was being made to help patients comply and also improve access to treatment.
”The initial start of the programme did not only pose a daunting task for the department, but it also brought a ray of hope to those living with HIV and Aids in the province,” said Thusi. – Sapa, Reuters