HIV/AIDS gets the world's full attention

In its first major policy statement on HIV and AIDS, the World Summit on Sustainable Development has put the pandemic firmly on the Conference agenda. "Because of its importance in social and economic terms, we see tackling it as absolutely central to our agenda," said Summit Secretary-General Nitin Desai.

"You cannot tackle sustainable development when you have such a serious problem as HIV and AIDS raging," he said.

Desai said the opening plenary session of the Summit on Monday had been planned to focus on health and, in particular, HIV and AIDS. He said the disease had not been on the agenda in the same way at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio, but had to be confronted head-on in Johannesburg.

Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma immediately endorsed the centrality of HIV and AIDS with a comprehensive explanation of SA's policy, which avoided the usual defensive tone and presented a coherent and credible account.

Dlamini-Zuma said HIV and AIDS was a good example of why sustainable and integrated development was necessary. To tackle HIV/AIDS, one also had to tackle nutrition, sanitation and other related issues.

Dlamini-Zuma said in reply to a question that South Africa's HIV and AIDS policy was based on the fact that HIV causes AIDS and that there is no cure and no vaccination.

The major focus was how to educate the population on how to prevent the spread of the disease, and this was where the major financial resources were directed.

The second priority was to remove the stigma around HIV and AIDS, and to demystify the disease and educate people as to what they can do to alleviate the symptoms.

The third priority was to ensure that those threatened by opportunistic diseases, which were often the cause of AIDS deaths, had access to treatment and affordable drugs.

She said the government did not at present provide anti-retrovirals to people living with HIV and AIDS because of the cost. "With the present price of anti-retroviral drugs, we cannot afford it. It's not a matter of principle," she said.

Dlamini-Zuma noted that South Africa had led the way in securing cheaper generic drugs, and had done so despite resistance from both pharmaceutical companies and the entire industrialised world, which did not want to see drug profits shrink. "We stood our ground with the whole developed world fighting against us," she said.

Dlamini-Zuma said SA had a programme to roll out free Nevirapine for preventing mother-to-child transmission, but was currently doing so only through pilot sites in order to tackle the real problems of the cost of baby food - as mothers on Nevirapine had to stop breastfeeding - and how to prolong the lives of mothers.