South Africa Launches Unprecedented Campaign For HIV/AIDS Treatment, Testing, Prevention

South African President Jacob Zuma on Sunday launched a national HIV/AIDS treatment, testing and prevention campaign, which United Nations officials are calling the largest and quickest expansion of HIV/AIDS services a nation has ever attempted, the New York Times reports. South Africa has the highest number of HIV-positive residents in the world at an estimated 5.7 million.

The government in the past month enabled 519 health facilities to dispense antiretroviral drugs, more than all years combined since the government began providing the medications in 2004. It also trained hundreds of nurses to prescribe antiretrovirals and plans to train thousands more at each of the nation’s 4,333 public clinics.

According to the South African Finance Ministry, the expanded access to the drugs will add one million individuals to the nation’s treatment programs within the next few years. The government has budgeted an extra $1 billion toward the heavier caseload, but its “understaffed public health system and the ballooning cost of treating millions of people for life will pose daunting challenges,” the New York Times reports (Dugger, New York Times, 4/25).

In addition to increased treatment access, the campaign aims to test 15 million of the nation’s 47 million residents by June 2011, the Los Angeles Times reports (Dixon, Los Angeles Times, 4/26). As part of the effort, government clinics will offer every patient an HIV test, and the government will provide pharmacies with testing kits for one year at no cost (New York Times, 4/25).

The government also plans to distribute 1.5 billion condoms this year, compared with 450 million last year (Los Angeles Times, 4/26). Zuma said the nation also will launch a nationwide drive to circumcise millions of men. Three years ago, the World Health Organization recommended circumcision as a way to decrease a man’s risk of contracting HIV by more than half (New York Times, 4/25).

Sunday’s announcement underscores the different approaches of Zuma and his predecessor, Thabo Mbeki, to the nation’s HIV/AIDS epidemic (Los Angeles Times, 4/26). Mbeki questioned whether HIV causes AIDS and suggested that antiretrovirals are harmful.

Although Zuma has “broken sharply” with Mbeki by confronting HIV/AIDS, his political career has not been without controversy on the issue, the New York Times reports (New York Times, 4/25). During his 2006 rape trial, Zuma drew criticism from HIV/AIDS activists after he said he’d had unprotected extramarital sex (Los Angeles Times, 4/26). Earlier this year, he again admitted having unprotected sex with a much younger woman (New York Times, 4/25).

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