Zuma announces dramatic scale-up in AIDS treatment

Dec 1, 2009, 14:16 GMT

Johannesburg - South African President Jacob Zuma on Tuesday announced a dramatic expansion of the country's HIV/AIDS treatment programme, which will see all HIV-infected children under the age of one automatically receive free AIDS drugs.

Addressing an event in Pretoria on World AIDS Day, Zuma also announced expanded treatment for HIV-positive pregnant women and people infected with both HIV and tuberculosis.

Until now, HIV patients have only been put on life-prolonging anti-retroviral treatment (ARVs) if their CD4 count, a measure of the patient's immunity, falls below 200.

Zuma said a CD4 count of 350 would be the new benchmark for HIV- positive expectant mothers and patients with both HIV and TB. The policy change comes a day after the World Health Organization recommended that all HIV-positive people should begin treatment when their CD4 count fell below 350.

South Africa has the highest burden of HIV infection in the world. Some 5.7 million, or one in 9 South Africans, is HIV-positive. The rate of new infections has dropped slightly in recent years, while the total number of HIV infected rises as patients live longer, owing to the widespread availability of treatment.

Compared with his predecessor, Thabo Mbeki, who questioned the link between HIV and AIDS and dragged out the rollout of ARVs, Zuma has adopted a more pragmatic approach to the epidemic which has ravaged sub-Saharan Africa.

'Extraordinary measures' were needed to reverse the current trend of HIV/AIDS in South Africa, he said.

HIV and TB infection would now be treated in tandem to avoid TB going undetected in HIV patients, he said.

TB is one of the most common causes of death among HIV patients.

Zuma, who drew criticism for having unprotected sex with an HIV- positive woman when he was deputy president, has shown leadership on the HIV/AIDS front since becoming president in May.

Touching on the stigma that surrounds the disease which is transmitted through sex or contact with contaminated blood, he said: 'Let there be no more shame, no more blame, no more discrimination and no more stigma.'

He also urged South Africans not to be 'irresponsible in our sexual practices.'

Zuma also promised access to HIV testing, counselling and treatment would be improved. All health centres - and not just designated ARV-dispensing clinics and hospitals - will begin to offer HIV-related services in April next year, he said.

'It means that we will be treating significantly larger numbers of HIV positive patients,' he said. 'It means that people will live longer and more fulfilling lives.'