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Research head calls for an HIV/AIDS 'statesman'
Evelio Conteras. Cape Times. 03 April 2003. Republished courtesy of Independent Newspapers (Pty) Ltd.
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Southern Africa needs statesmen, not politicians, to deal with HIV/AIDS, says Alan Whiteside, director for Health and Economics and Research Division (HEARD) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
Whiteside and other HIV/AIDS researchers on Wednesday presented the case for a comprehensive HIV/AIDS treatment plan at the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Regional Governance and AIDS Forum in Cape Town.
In an opening statement to the forum, Deputy President Jacob Zuma said South Africa had a comprehensive HIV/AIDS strategy-and-action plan which focused on prevention, care, support and treatment, as well as legal and human-rights support.
"We've made progress in our prevention strategy, and a number of surveys confirm that HIV/AIDS-awareness levels in SA are very high," Zuma said.
But many of the delegates said awareness of the epidemic was not enough.
"We have been late, inadequate, slow, unimaginative, lacking in leadership and single-minded in viewing HIV/AIDS as a health issue," Whiteside said, blaming politicians for the projected figure of six million infections by 2006.
"We don't need politicians. We need statesmen. A politician looks to the next election; a statesman looks to the next generation."
In the first week of war, Whiteside pointed out, 29 American soldiers were killed in Iraq. That same week in South Africa, 150 times more people died of HIV/AIDS alone.
"The deaths are spread across the country," he said. "HIV is the water that slips into the cracks of this society. AIDS is the ice that splits us apart."
Doctors and researchers at the SADC forum criticised government officials for failing to present an affordable and credible HIV/AIDS treatment plan.
"Despite the figures we are hearing, our response has been pathetic and slow," said Anne Shongwe, policy adviser for the SADC governments. "It's not been good enough. If it had been good enough, we wouldn't have the figures we have today."
According to UN estimates, 42 million people are living with HIV; of these, 70 percent live in Sub-Saharan Africa, with five million in South Africa.
Global health organisations such as the United Nations Development Programme were also singled out for not addressing HIV/AIDS sooner.
"I don't know how you can look at this without tears in your eyes," said Whiteside to a colleague about the life expectancy of South Africans - 38 years - living in areas where HIV prevalence is high.
"These life-expectancy rates are lower than (on) the day of independence.
"These people are like you and me - in their 20s and 30s." |
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