An article from the New York Times, December 2, 2009 entitled: "Breaking With Past, South Africa Issues Broad AIDS Policy" by Celia W. Dugger (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/02/world/africa/02safrica.html?pagewanted=print)
The president of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, declared on December 1st (World AIDS Day) that drug therapy for HIV-positive women and babies is to be improved and will now start much earlier. This is an attempt at ensuring that all babies are born healthy. The new policy is in response to the new treatment guidelines issued by the World Health Organization the day before the president's address. The early treatment of newborns will be attempting to lower child mortality in South Africa, as the country is one of only four countries where the level of child mortality has worsened since 1990. South Africa has more HIV-positive inhabitants than any other nation in the world. President Zuma stated, "We have no choice but to deploy every effort, mobilize every resource and utilize every skill our nation possesses." He says that by April, the government would begin treating those who are HIV-positive with tuberculosis earlier, as tuberculosis is the leading killer of South Africans with HIV. The number of deaths due to tuberculosis has more than tripled in South Africa since 1997.
The former president of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, spend nine years in office questioning whether HIV even caused AIDS and suggested that antiretroviral drug treatment could be harmful. He once said he had never known anyone who had died of AIDS. Harvard researchers estimate that 330,000 people died prematurely due to lack of treatment because of Mbeki's delay in the use of these drugs. This includes 35,000 babies. The Congress of South African Trade Unions said that Mbeki should apologize to the nation for his failures in fighting an epidemic that it describes as "destroying more lives than any invading army in history." Also, the Young Communist League has demanded that he be prosecuted for genocide.
As well as the South African government's new policy against the HIV epidemic, the United States will be giving South Africa $120 million over the next two years to help buy the desperately needed antiretroviral drugs to treat the disease. This is on top of the $560 million they were already planning on giving South Africa in the 2010 fiscal year to fight the epidemic.
I personally think this announcement is a great thing. The previous president seemed not to really care much about the effect that HIV has on the people of South Africa. Zuma's policy seems like it could be a new beginning and if the government keeps up with the effort, hopefully it will make a difference in the lives of many people. It also helps raise awareness of the AIDS epidemic and may lead others t0 take greater action against the disease. I believe that this is a huge step in the fight against the AIDS epidemic.
Here is an interesting video I found about the topic of the article: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JPesVItjik
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I thought this article was great as well. It makes me really happy to know that the US is giving $680 million to South Africa for this cause. I never knew exactly what America was doing to contribute to this effort, so that was especially nice to read. I think that this whole policy is the smartest things I've heard in a while. Mbeki's actions, or lack of, made me angry in that I don't understand what his motives were. It's impossible to believe that he doesn't know one person who's died of AIDS. I think that leadership needs to be trustworthy and stable and Zumba fits this. He is exactly was South Africa needs to begin its aggressive movement toward a healthier country.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that this issue is being addressed so intensely is reassuring. Its good to know that our world is moving in a right direction and its fading continent of Africa is being care of.