The South African government unveiled plans on Friday to reduce the number of people being infected with HIV by 50% within the next five years.
A new action plan launched by Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka also contains target pledges to provide care for 80% of the population in a country with the second-highest number of people living with HIV in the world.
”Key priority one: reduce by 50% the rate of new infections by 2011,” reads the plan, a copy of which was obtained ahead of a speech by the deputy president.
The plan emphasises that key to success in the fight against Aids is the ability to reduce the number of new infections among young people. Greater sex education is needed, while it is also vital to ensure that ”a large proportion of youth 14 to 17 years of age delay the initiation of sex”.
”The future course of the epidemic hinges in many respects on the behaviour young people adopt and maintain,” it adds.
The South African government has been heavily criticised both at home and abroad over its approach to the epidemic, which affects 5,5-million of the 47-million population.
Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, dubbed Dr Beetroot, has attracted particular derision for advocating a diet of garlic and vegetables to help combat the epidemic.
Mlambo-Ngcuka, however, has come to play an increasingly high-profile role in the fight against the disease.
Tshabalala-Msimang, who has had health problems, was absent from the launch in the north-western province of Mpumalanga.
The new 2007-2011 action plan says, however, that further research will be financed on the role of nutrition as well as traditional medicine in building up immunity to the disease.
Division
The government has been riven by internal divisions over the approach to the epidemic, with Tshabalala-Msimang’s deputy attacking a culture of ”denial”.
The deputy president said it is important that the government does not become distracted by internal battles. ”If we focus our energy on conflicting with one another and on differences between us, we will lose sight of our shared goals and weaken collective resolve and efforts to implement this plan,” she said.
Anti-Aids campaigners have said that Tshabalala-Msimang’s focus on vegetables has been at the expense of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, which they say are key to winning the fight against the disease.
Mlambo-Ngcuka said 213 000 people are beneficiaries of a government-funded ARV programme and 11 000 are joining every month. In addition, more than 360-million condoms are being distributed yearly.
Macharia Kamau, chief representative in South Africa of the United Nations Children’s Fund, hailed the government’s recent performance.
”This country has made great strides in the provision of treatment over the past couple of years. It has the fastest-growing uptake and largest number of people on ARV treatment,” he said. ”I make a special plea that this country makes a special effort to contain the impact of Aids on children.”
The words of praise are in stark contrast to criticism from the UN’s chief envoy on Aids in Africa, who accused the government in August of espousing ”theories more worthy of a lunatic fringe than of a concerned and compassionate state”.
Important occasion
In a statement, Tshabalala-Msimang said on Friday: ”World Aids Day is a very important occasion in our daily struggle to prevent the spread of HIV infection and reduce the impact of Aids in our society. We urge all South Africans to participate in the activities planned by government and various other organisations to observe this day in various parts of the country.”
She said the day is of particular importance to the Department of Health because of the new strategic Aids plan as well as a review of the South African National Aids Council, ”to ensure that this structure becomes a true expression of our multisectoral response to HIV and Aids”.
”I am looking forward to participating in the further work that needs to be done from early next year to ensure the success and sustainability of these two very important processes,” the minister said. ”During this World Aids Day, let us commit ourselves as the people of South Africa to build on the advances made thus far in responding to HIV and Aids.”
Official opposition Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon said on Friday that, looking back on 2006, it is instructive to note how far South Africa has come since the dark days of August when the country’s worldwide standing on its HIV/Aids approach reached an all-time low.
He said: ”At year’s end, a refreshing turnabout on government’s Aids policy beckons — none too soon for the country, as we wrestle with a pandemic which threatens all our futures on every front, from the health and prospects of each individual to that of society as a whole.”
Though the effectiveness of the new plan has yet to be tested, Leon said its mere existence ”can only be considered a mammoth step forward from the moribund, not to say vegetative, policies of the health minister”. — I-Net Bridge– Sapa-AFP, I-Net Bridge