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Date Posted: 12:39:19 05/16/02 Thu
Author: Anonymous
Subject: South Africa's Mbeki Says He Will Lead AIDS Campaign

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/432589_print

South Africa's Mbeki Says He Will Lead AIDS Campaign

Reuters Health Information 2002. � 2002 Reuters Ltd
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Introduction
CAPE TOWN, South Africa (Reuters) Apr 24 - South African President Thabo Mbeki, who last week announced a dramatic change in the government's HIV/AIDS policy, has promised to take the lead in fighting the disease.

Mbeki, who defied medical opinion by questioning the link between HIV and AIDS and blocked wide access to crucial drugs, told South African Independent Newspapers his government had failed to communicate its policies on the disease.

"It is critically important that I, sitting in the position that I sit in, communicate correct messages," he said in an interview published on Tuesday in the group's newspapers.

In 2000, Mbeki withdrew briefly from the debate on AIDS and he has regularly deflected questions about the pandemic to officials and ministers. Now he has promised to take the lead, adding: "I think if people are told the truth they can get through this. And it is necessary to tell the truth repeatedly."

Physicians and activists fighting the pandemic have slammed Mbeki in the past for undermining the prevention campaign by expressing doubt that HIV causes AIDS and refusing wide access to antiretroviral drugs, saying they are too costly and toxic.

Last week, Mbeki chaired a cabinet meeting that resulted in a radical shift of policy on AIDS. While the cabinet stopped short of acknowledging the link between HIV and AIDS as a fact, it said in a statement it would act on the "premise" that HIV caused AIDS.

The cabinet reversed a ban on the treatment of rape victims in state hospitals with antiretroviral drugs, saying it would be allowed if patients accepted the risk posed by the drugs. The government also announced plans to offer universal access next year to antiretroviral drugs that can help prevent vertical HIV transmission.

AIDS activists hailed the turnaround as the most significant policy shift, but urged the government to make up for lost time. Mbeki clashed last year with the state-funded Medical Research Council over the impact of the pandemic and said crime and poverty were the biggest killers.

The council said in a report last year that AIDS would kill up to 7 million people by 2010 if the state continued its policies on treatment and prevention.

Mbeki made no comment in the interview on the causes of AIDS or its impact, but it said he accepted and emphasised the link between sex and infection. "You can't be going around having promiscuous sex...and hope that you won't be affected by something or other," he said.

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