|
|
 |
TAC to back anti-retroviral plan, but monitor progress
Jo-Anne Smetherham. 25 November 2003. Cape Times. Republished courtesy of Independent Newspapers (Pty) Ltd.
|
Zackie Achmat, the hero in the national battle for an anti-retroviral treatment plan, has thrown the weight of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) behind the government's efforts to provide anti-retroviral drugs.
Achmat said the TAC would educate people about HIV/AIDS and encourage them to be tested, but warned that the organisation would continue to monitor the government's progress in providing the drugs - and said it was vital that condoms be distributed at every school and place of worship in South Africa.
Achmat was speaking at the University of Cape Town, in the opening address of a workshop on HIV/AIDS reporting, attended by journalists from Brazil, China, Uganda and other developing nations.
"Twenty years into the epidemic we are still discussing if having condoms available promotes sex, while in some schools 30% of the girls are HIV-positive," said Achmat. "Every church and mosque should have condoms available, and not in the toilet but out in the open, to destigmatise the use of them," he said.
The biggest obstacle to providing anti-retrovirals to all who need them would be there not being enough doctors, nurses, pharmacists, lay counsellors and other health workers.
More doctors who knew how to treat HIV/AIDS should be brought from Cuba and other countries. And South Africa's health infrastructure would have to be improved if anti-retrovirals were to be successfully provided.
The government report on anti-retrovirals states that 500 000 people currently need them and that in the first year of the programme 10% of them would get the drugs.
"We think it should be not 10%, but 30%," said Achmat. TAC plans to assist the government on three fronts. The first is to educate people about HIV/AIDS and encourage them to be tested. The second is to train staff, and the third to monitor progress.
"It's not going to be easy. There are still people who don't want it to happen, both HIV denialists and old school public health services," said Achmat.
Quoting government statistics, Achmat said the previous government had distributed only one million condoms, while the ANC government had distributed 250 million. This worked out to 20 condoms for each sexually active person every year.
Recent research had shown that 46% of people were using condoms, which was "a very high percentage, actually".
"That figure could be even higher if condoms were promoted more," he said. He proposed that South Africa manufacture as many drugs as possible and donate them to other sub-Saharan countries.
South African Muppet, Kami, was formally appointed by the United Nations Childrens Fund (Unicef) in Geneva yesterday as a global "Champion for Children", a statement said.
On Takalani Sesame, the furry yellow Kami portrays a five-year-old HIV-positive girl orphaned by AIDS, who confronts issues related to HIV-positive children in a way that three- to seven-year-olds can understand.
Kami appears regularly on South African television and radio. Her first appearance with Unicef under the new collaboration will be in Geneva tomorrow, where she will help launch a report, Africa's orphaned generation which details the impact of HIV/AIDS on children in Africa. "The appeal of the partnership is that through characters like Kami, we can highlight areas where children are particularly vulnerable in ways that are gentle, honest and compassionate," Unicef executive director Carol Bellamy said. The South African project manager for Takalani Sesame, Gloria Britain, said the idea for an HIV-positive Muppet originated in a programme contents seminar held by local partners in 2001.
Britain said all the South African partners agreed with the spirit of Unicef's announcement. Takalani Sesame is brought to the children of South Africa through a partnership with the Department of Education, United States Agency for International Development, Sanlam and SABC Education. |
| Was this article helpful to you? |
 ?100%???? ?0%
|
|
Back
|
|
|
|
