THERE IS fresh hope that HIV/Aids will be brought under control in South Africa with the recent appointment of Barbara Hogan as health minister, Oxfam's programme officer in South Africa, Thabi Khosa, said at the weekend.
Highlighting the 20th World Aids Day, which falls today, Ms Khosa said people working in the HIV/Aids field believed that the new health minister was willing to look seriously at improving access to treatment.
When Ms Hogan took on the job in October, the veteran anti-apartheid activist said she would tackle HIV/Aids head on, after many blunders by her predecessor and by former president Thabo Mbeki. The former leader drew international criticism when he questioned the link between HIV and Aids, while former health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang had been called Dr Beetroot for promoting the benefits of products such as beetroot and lemons for treating Aids.
South Africa has one of the most severe HIV/Aids epidemics in the world, with some 5.7 million out of a population of 47 million believed to be HIV-positive.
Ms Khosa said there had been a slight decrease in the national HIV prevalence in recent years. In 2005 some 30.2 per cent of pregnant women attending public antenatal clinics were HIV-positive compared with 29.1 per cent now.
"However, whilst we might celebrate the decline in prevalence, it is also important to consider the possibility of decline due to people dying of Aids-related illness due to limited access to treatment," she said. "This is why it is important to comprehensively support community organisations that address prevention, care and treatment issues in South Africa."
The country was one of the slowest to start providing anti-retroviral drugs and only about 28 per cent of people are now receiving the treatment they need.
Ms Khosa said improving literacy rates was a key factor in controlling the disease. "In KwaZulu-Natal, 35 per cent of the population is illiterate." This made it difficult to access work and forced the person to remain dependent on someone else. Illiteracy also made it difficult to access services or read awareness messages.
Ms Khosa works with a joint Oxfam programme supported by Oxfam Ireland and four other partners. The programme supports Operation Upgrade, an adult literacy programme which includes references to HIV/Aids in its course materials.
Recently programme managers noticed that women were missing classes because they had to walk long journeys to collect water. The project workers installed water tanks and now more people attend the centre, both for reading and to get clean water.
Ms Khosa said education would help to dispel myths still widespread in some rural areas. "Some people still believe sleeping with a virgin will cure HIV." Rape is very common and it is estimate that a woman is raped every 36 seconds. "And I haven't heard of a single case where the rapist uses a condom." Asked if she believed the disease would ever be brought under control in South Africa, Ms Khosa said: " Maybe there is some light at the end of the tunnel, but there are some big challenges."
In the run-up to this year's World Aids Day, campaigners worldwide have been renewing calls on governments to honour their commitments to meet the UN target of universal access to HIV treatment, care and prevention services by 2010.
