South Africa has more people living with Aids than any other country, but it also has a new government determined to end the crisis, the head of the United Nations Aids programme said on Monday.
”If I am not in South Africa for World Aids Day, I don’t know where I should be,” UNAids executive director Michel Sidibe told the Associated Press on the eve of the day when the world takes stock of efforts to fight the pandemic and remembers those who have died.
South Africa, a nation of about 50-million, has an estimated 5,7-million people infected with HIV — more than any other country in the world. Nearly 1 000 South Africans die every day of Aids-related diseases.
Former president Thabo Mbeki’s government questioned the link between HIV and Aids, and his health minister distrusted drugs developed to keep Aids patients alive, instead promoting beetroot and garlic as Aids treatments.
A Harvard study has concluded that more than 300 000 premature deaths in South Africa could have been prevented had officials here acted sooner to provide drug treatments to Aids patients and to prevent pregnant women with HIV from passing the virus to their children.
The African National Congress forced Mbeki to step down late last year after almost a decade as president, and President Jacob Zuma took over following April elections. Zuma and his health minister have said Mbeki’s Aids policies were wrong and set a target to get 80% of those who need Aids drugs on them by 2011.
Zuma is scheduled to give a major speech on Aids on Tuesday.
Sidibe said he hoped the president would address the social and financial issues related to fighting Aids.
”People who are privileged, who have resources … they are fortunate. They will not die, probably, from HIV,” Sidibe said.
”But you have millions of other people … who do not have access to health systems and services.”
Zuma ”is committed to making change happen”, Sidibe said. He credited the country’s Health Department with moving quickly to distribute more Aids drugs and for working with the UN to improve ways of using scarce resources.
Increasing the number of people on Aids drugs will require more money at a time when the global recession has many worried funding for health will decrease. Sidibe pleaded with donors: ”Please, make your adjustments with a human face.”
But he said more could be done with existing resources, such as taking steps to improve management. He also said the costs of treating Aids in the long run would be reduced as new infections were reduced.
”We need prevention, prevention, prevention,” he said.
Treatment
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) issued new advice on the treatment of HIV on Monday, saying drugs should be given earlier and even be prescribed to breastfeeding mothers.
The WHO says adults and adolescents should receive antiretroviral therapy (ART) when their immune system strength falls below 350 cells per cubic millimetre of blood. In 2006, the organisation had set the level at 200 cells per cubic millimetre.
”These new recommendations are based on the most up-to-date available data,” said Hiroki Nakatani, assistant director general for HIV/Aids, TB, Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases at the WHO.
”Their widespread adoption will enable many more people in high-burden areas to live longer and healthier lives.”
The WHO also recommended pregnant women exposed to the virus could be treated with antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) from the 14th week of pregnancy and that treatment could continue during breastfeeding.
”Several clinical trials have shown the efficacy of ARVs in preventing transmission to the infant while breastfeeding,” a WHO statement said.
The WHO also said Stavudine, a relatively cheap HIV/Aids drug that is widely used in developing countries, should be replaced with Zidovudine and Tenofovir as they have less harmful side effects.
About 33,4-million people worldwide are living with HIV/Aids and there are 2,7-million new cases each year. — Sapa-AP, AFP
Read the Mail & Guradian‘s special report on Aids