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New era of AIDS care in S. Africa

Johannesburg: South Africa’s new Health Minister has pledged to “get things right” over AIDS, after years of denialism by the former President, Thabo Mbeki, and blunders by her predecessor, who at one stage suggested beetroot as a remedy.

Signalling a major policy shift the new Minister, veteran anti-apartheid activist Barbara Hogan, marked her differences with her predecessor Manto Tshabalala-Msimang.

“You don’t have to be a health expert to understand the challenge this country is facing when it comes to the AIDS pandemic,” she told a press conference in Pretoria.

South Africa has the world’s highest number of people with HIV.

Some 5.5 million out of a population of 47 million are estimated to be HIV positive.

“It is critically important that those who need treatment are able to get it,” said Ms. Hogan, who served time in prison during the struggle against apartheid. “I am passionate about getting things right.

We will as a matter of urgency examine all the gaps in delivery.”

Hundreds of thousands of South Africans have died from AIDS over the past 14 years of ANC government, while Mr. Mbeki, who succeeded Nelson Mandela as President in 1999, has been lambasted for claiming that HIV does not lead to AIDS.

Even after antiretrovirals became affordable in 2002, the South African government dragged its feet.

Tshabalala-Msimang, who was replaced last week in the wake of Mr. Mbeki’s resignation on September 21, became a laughing stock after touting remedies such as garlic, olive oil and beetroot.

Ms. Hogan said she would avoid “cheap solutions” and “political games”. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2008

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