ESKOM CONFERENCE CENTRE, MIDRAND, 20 June 2000
Honourable MEC's
Excellencies, Members of the Diplomatic corps
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentleman
Today marks yet another milestone in the Gauteng Province's fight against the spread of HIV/AIDS. We are humbled by your positive response to our invitation to the launch of the Gauteng AIDS Council. We are equally grateful to members of the AIDS Council who took our request to serve on the council as a sense of civic duty. To them I say; you are true role models of the democratic South Africa we are trying to build.
As already outlined by MEC Ramokgopa, the main purpose of this council is to strengthen the partnership between government and civil society in our fight against the spread of HIV/AIDS.
Yesterday the Minister of Health, Comrade Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, launched a five-year plan to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS. Among others the plan aims to promote safe sex, uplift the treatment and management of sexually transmitted diseases and improve access to voluntary HIV/Aids testing and counseling. A culturally appropriate information, education and communication campaign will also be developed.
In addition, treatment, care and support services in health facilities and communities will be provided. Facilities to care for HIV/Aids infected children and those orphaned by the disease will also be increased.
This is what informs the programme of the Gauteng Provincial Government. We plan to make condoms accessible to men and women as well as their partners. In 70% of our health facilities we will have on-site syphilis testing.
We are working together with local government to put in place local intersectoral AIDS programmes in all of our Local Authorities including home-based care projects in each district.
We will continue to form strategic partnerships with other partners in development. These include national and local governments, NGO's, communities of faith, organisations for people living with HIV/AIDS, musicians, the media, trade unions and employers.
While our efforts mainly focuses on awareness campaigns, and whilst we accept that no cure for AIDS exist at the moment despite claims to the contrary, and that many people are infected, the challenge we face is ensuring that people who are infected with HIV/AIDS are not seen as outcasts in our society.
We have to create an environment for society to accept the fact that my friend who is HIV positive is still my friend. A worker who is HIV positive remains a valuable and dedicated worker. A member of the faith community remains a committed member of that faith. We must provide care for children who are orphaned because their parents died of HIV/AIDS.
Orphans remain the most tragic and long-term legacy of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. A recent study sponsored by the Business Day projected that by 2005, there will be approximately 800 000 orphans under the age of 15, rising to more than 1.5 million in 2010. The stigma and secrecy around HIV/AIDS will perpetuate the trauma orphans face and hamper the bereavement process as children are exposed to discrimination in their communities. This may in turn course even more of them to be prone to becoming infected through abuse and sex work because they have no one to care for them, having been rejected by society.
The atmosphere of doom and silence surrounding the problem of HIV/AIDS threatens to push us back into a medieval society. It is indeed silence that provides a perfect breeding ground for the spread of HIV.
It is in this regard that the Gauteng Provincial Government supports the need for voluntary HIV/AIDS testing by all of us. We should however avoid a situation where only those who are negative happily disclose their results. While it may be encouraging, to have more people having tested negative, the challenge is how to encourage those who find that they are positive not to keep quite about it.
It is however easier said than done, more so in a situation where those who openly admit to being HIV positive are scorned and attacked by society for doing the honourable thing - disclosing their HIV status for the sake of others not yet infected.
It is easy for people whose employers, families and society will continue to accept and support them to declare their status. The problem is with Sibongile, who works for a Mr Smith in the suburbs. If she discloses her HIV positive status she is will most likely be fired from her job in the mistaken belief that she would infect the Smith family? uMaDlamini, who lives in Dobsonville, might declare only to find that her friends no longer want to socialize with her and the community might even hound her out of the township.
How do we run this campaign when society still needs to come to grips with accepting people living with HIV/AIDS? We need to ensure that while we encourage people to disclose their status, we also change the attitude of society towards people living with HIV/AIDS. We need to provide counseling for them and their families.
Members of the Council should bear in mind the unfortunate truth that very little is understood in our society about what this condition is all about. There is still a lot of stigma and misunderstandings. We however need to distinguish between genuine fear of a dangerous and a little understood epedemic and exploitation of such fears to attack others.
It is however also true that to be stigmatized because of illnesses is hardly confined to people living with AIDS. Children born with herpes are the largest group to encounter such prejudice. They are sometimes even kept out of schools although the risks of contagion are slight. In the case of AIDS, a very considerable medical evidence that transmission cannot occur through casual contact seems to be screened out by a large number of people.
What is most extra ordinary about the AIDS epidemic up to now is the high level of fear for people infected with HIV/AIDS. Examples of discriminations are numerous, despite assurances from public health officials that AIDS could not be transmitted by mere proximity.
There are a lot of examples of people who have been discriminated because of their HIV status. Many people who are HIV positive are neglected and abandoned by their friends, relatives and lovers. Many in our communities who have tried to justify their negative attitudes towards people with AIDS have sought to portray AIDS as a self inflicted disorder for the majority of those who suffer from it.
There are also some in our communities who still believe that those who are HIV positive either deserve it or have been bewitched. In a recent article in the Sunday Times, there was a report of children whose parents died of AIDS. These children now have to fend for themselves. It was said that one of the children who went to ask for food in another family was given food but told to thoroughly wipe the mouth to remove any sign that he had been given food. This caring family went to this extend for fear of the community which could accuse them of supporting a family associated with evil things.
This is why I believe awareness campaigns and education play a vital role. Our major focus should be with young teenagers who are only beginning to experiment with sexuality. We should encourage them to abstain, to delay engaging in sexual activities or to use a condom.
Given the misperceptions associated with HIV/AIDS, it follows also that another major focus should be on the parents of these teenagers, because of the beliefs that exists in our society based on untruths about what causes AIDS.
Let us not only emphasize the need to use condoms but also a deeper understanding of the risks associated with casual sex. The point has been made over and over again that HIV strives on the existence also of other sexually transmitted disease, and that where STD's are more prevalent, the chances of contracting HIV are much higher.
There is also another link I wish to draw between poverty and the spread of HIV/AIDS. Poor people, who have no food and proper supply of energy consequently, have a very weak immune system. It also means that where the immune system is already affected by poverty related illnesses and diseases, that when a person is infected with HIV/AIDS the chances of dying much faster are higher.
This calls for us to take a holistic approach to the treatment and approach to HIV/AIDS. It means we must not seek to address the problem of HIV/AIDS only from a medical point of view. A social and developmental approach is required. We must extend and intensify our campaign against poverty linking the campaign to how we address the challenges of HIV/AIDS.
I made the point earlier that there is consensus among scientist that there is no drug at this stage that can cure AIDS. Drugs, which are available, can only suppress the negative effect of HIV. These drugs however are very expensive and therefore out of reach for ordinary men and women. We therefore also need to support those who are campaigning for affordable drugs. The question we need to ask those who tell us that there is an offer of a 70% reduction, is 70% of how much? I am told that even with an 80% reduction, the entire health budget would be consumed.
A study conducted by Medicines sans Frontiers (MSF) and Health Action International (HAI), reported that a year's treatment of Aids can cost nearly 60 times as much in the developing world as in the West, while 100 tablets of the malaria-battling medicine mefloquine cost $549 in Tanzania compared to $308 in Norway.
"Prices are very high in this region, often higher than in developing countries", said HAI pharmacist Kirsten Myhr, who was in charge of the preliminary study on medicine prices.
The pharmacist compared medication prices in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania with those in Norway, where they correspond with the European Union average.
The government has however responded to the offer of one type of drug offered for free by PFIZER. The drug is aimed at treating other opportunistic illnesses such as meningitis. We are awaiting a response from them.
We remain committed to finding a speedy solution to the treatment of people living with AIDS. In this regard we are eagerly awaiting the results of a number of scientific studies on AIDS drugs. Among these are two studies whose findings will hopefully be reported at the AIDS conference in Durban next month - the SAINT study, for which our government has contributed funds, and the PETRA study. Both these studies are looking at the issue of mother to child transmission. We are also awaiting the report of the AIDS Advisory Panel set up by the President.
Because of our full commitment to curb the AIDS epidemic, our government together with SADC Health Ministers have agreed to the following priority areas:
The Gauteng AIDS council comprises men and women who are dedicated to saving the nation from the scourge of HIV/AIDS. They include people in government, business, trade unions, communities of faith, people living with AIDS, youth, women, sports, and NGO's. While they are not here as representatives of their own constituencies, I have no doubt that they will spread the message even amongst their constituencies.
Through the Premier's Committee on AIDS which includes all MEC's and HOD's we await your inputs on specific areas requiring focus.
Once more I wish to thank all members of the council. Together we will preach about the need to abstain from sex, especially by teenagers, mobilise the nation to remain faithful to one partner, and encourage the use of condoms. We will all communities to care for orphans and all those living with AIDS. We will campaign for medical aid companies and insurance companies, and the rest of employers not to discriminate against those living with AIDS.
I thank you.