An end to the days of denialism

SOUTH Africa – with Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi at the helm – has done an aboutturn in its approach to the Aids virus in recent years.

The department recently announced that, as of September, every person who tested positive, irrespective of CD4 count, would be supplied with ARV treatment, in keeping with World Health Organisation guidelines.

This brings to life the theme of this year’s International Aids Conference: Access Equity Rights Now.

Add to this the June-initiated pilot programme of Truvada – a PrEP drug (pre-exposure prophylaxis) proven to be effective in preventing HIV transmission – which is being given to sex workers, identified as a key population if the world is to reach its 2020 targets of 90 percent of those with HIV diagnosed, 90 percent of those HIV positive on ART and 90 percent of them virally suppressed (commonly referred to as 90-90-90).

The department has also been instrumental in encouraging young men to get circumcised, a practice that can reduce the risk of acquiring the virus by as much as 60 percent.

To date, more than 700 000 young men and boys have undergone the procedure.

With the use of nevirapine to prevent mother to child transmission, South Africa has reduced this transmission rate from over 34 percent to below two percent.

Activists like Constitutional Court Justice Edwin Cameron, who has been the living with the virus since 1986, also highlighted the plight of gay and transgendered people for whom the virus is still a major threat, in large part because of the stigma attached to seeking treatment.

South Africa is also at the forefront of research.

Organisations like Durbanbased Centre for the Aids Programme of Research in South Africa (Caprisa) at the conference presented groundbreaking findings linked to another key population (young women and girls) involving the use of PrEP drug Tenofovir gel and the impact of the organisms in a woman’s vagina on her risk of acquiring HIV.

Ian Sanne, chief executive of care organisation Right to Care, said South Africa now led the charge against the epidemic.

“The Universities of Cape Town, Wits, Stellenbosch and KwaZulu-Natal have all contributed to our scientific efforts in fighting the epidemic. Sites in South Africa have also been key for research,” said Sanne.

Motsoaledi was appointed in 2009 by President Jacob Zuma who took up office then and acknowledged the magnitude of the epidemic.

South African researcher in maternal and child health Professor Hoosen “Jerry” Coovadia at MatCH (Maternal, Adolescant and Child Health Systems) said: “People have levelled much criticism against Zuma for many of his policies but, in this case, he comes out on top. He made many good decisions.”

This week’s conference, which came to an end yesterday, was somewhat a celebration of the progress South Africa has made since those dark days of denialism.

But the battle has not yet been won.