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TODAY is World Aids Day and we mark another year in which thousands have died needlessly of a disease that can be medically managed with the right intervention.
In previous years, this day has seen voices of protest against government’s failure to grasp the Aids nettle.
There have been strong criticisms of the denialism preached by its leaders and of the failure to roll out anti-retroviral drugs with sufficient urgency and in sufficient quantities to alleviate the harm caused by Aids.
This year is different. Perhaps the single most important change brought about by the new government under Jacob Zuma is a ringing change of attitude to this epidemic.
Zuma himself has made a point of publicly talking about Aids and taking a strong stance against the stigmatisation of those who have the virus.
And he has pledged to roll out the anti-retroviral intervention so desperately needed.
But there are still problems. There are provinces, such as the Free State, where the state has failed to manage the supply of the drugs adequately and there have been shortfalls with tragic consequences.
The new health minister, Aaron Motsoaledi, has made a massive difference. In place of recalcitrant denialism of the Mbeki era under health minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, we now have a public admission of the scale of the problem and a strong willingness to turn around the health service offered to the majority.
Government is turning the corner on Aids, but that is not enough on its own.
This problem requires all of us to act. We must teach our children and our relatives about Aids and how it can be avoided. We must be sympathetic, supportive and considerate when someone close to us has Aids. We must offer financial, material and emotional support if we can afford to do so.
South Africans are finally rising from despair to action. And that is the only way to tackle a problem that requires a nation united.

Related posts:

  1. Manto Tshabalala-Msimang will be remembered for failure to fight Aids
  2. Aids war with government is finally over
  3. Jacob Zuma makes a point about Thabo Mbeki and Aids
  4. Mbeki will wear the Aids denialist millstone to his grave
  5. ANC apology on Aids would help heal the nation

 

Comments

 

Grant Murphy

December 1, 2009 at 9:19 am

I want to comment on the “other side of the coin” to the popular reports and comments on Aids. People are so stereotypical when they talk or hear about Aids. Their reactions are always the same, and along the same boring lines.
The reality is that a large number of people actually don’t give a damn about Aids or people with Aids. These people are the types who will probably never get Aids, as they lead controlled lives, where health risks are avoided, and financial risks are evaluated. They do not gamble sexually without protection, they remain celebate or stay faithful to each other.
Why should they care whether a cure is found? Wated funds as far as they are concerned.
As with anything; there are the unfortunate victims who did not ask to be infected, and who did not partake in risky behaviour to get themselves infected. These are the Aids infants and orphans, and not forgetting the rape victims. They are the only people worthy of sympathy, and why a cure is necessary. The rest only have themselves to blame.

 

Larry Goodfella

December 1, 2009 at 12:21 pm

Mbeki’s problem with admitting the link between HIV and AIDs is that it confirmed that Africans were ‘germ carriers’, and he chose to rather sacrifice hundreds of thousands of his countrymen and women, than to accept a scientific fact. Which is worse?

 

Larry Goodfella

December 1, 2009 at 4:09 pm

There is talk that Mbeki and his soon to be twice de-livered favourite Health Minister should be charged with crimes of genocide against his own people. No chance of that in Africa because here the dead stay dead and buried and easily forgoten by the living. Dead people dont matter, unless their passing solve the unemployment problem. Zuma’s promise of 500 thousand jobs by cristmas may have been a reality if the civilised world did not cajole and bully the ANC into saving millions of their people with ARV roll-out.

Funny place this.

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