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South Africa Will Expand AIDS Fight

In policy shift, country will ramp up testing and drugs for babies

By the Associated Press

Posted Dec 1, 2009 11:25 AM CST
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(AP) – South Africa said today it will expand HIV testing and treatment for pregnant women and babies, an eagerly awaited shift in a country that has more people living with HIV than any other. Today's speech by President Jacob Zuma on World AIDS Day was viewed as a turning point for a nation whose previous administration disputed the link between HIV and AIDS and pushed garlic treatments as a cure. One Harvard study said that resulted in more than 300,000 premature deaths.

Zuma compared the fight against AIDS to the decades-long struggle against apartheid. "At another moment in our history, in another context, the liberation movement observed that the time comes in the life of any nation when there remain only two choices: submit or fight," he said. "That time has now come in our struggle to overcome AIDS. Let us declare now, as we declared then, that we shall not submit."

South African President Jacob Zuma at a World AIDS Day address in Pretoria, South Africa, Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2009.
South African President Jacob Zuma at a World AIDS Day address in Pretoria, South Africa, Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2009.   (AP Photo/Waldo Swiegers)
In this file photo, children play at the Barcelona Baptist Church Center, which cares for children affected by AIDS, near Cape Town, South Africa.
In this file photo, children play at the Barcelona Baptist Church Center, which cares for children affected by AIDS, near Cape Town, South Africa.   (AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 4 comments
Mr.C
Dec 2, 2009 7:13 AM CST
acctually, DontLikeYou is right in this case, South Africa used to be the most developed and most likely nation in Africa to prosper. Toward the end of the last administration they took a step backward (with an HIV+ Health Minister that said he could have sex after taking a shower). Zuma has had all sorts of allegations against him, but he is taking a step in the right direction here.
kyleleitch
Dec 2, 2009 1:49 AM CST
That's the problem: he doesn't think. Additionally, what does progressiveness have to do with expanding a health service, much like we do flu vaccines at county health clinics here?
GernnBlanston
Dec 1, 2009 5:58 AM CST
"Used to be a progressive nation?" So...they shouldn't expand HIV testing? They should restore aprtheid? You should think your "jokes" through more?

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AIDS • HIV • public health • South Africa • Thabo Mbeki • Jacob Zuma • AIDS epidemic

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