South Africa's new health minister asked scientists today to
intensify their efforts to find an Aids vaccine amid
widespread gloom over recent research setbacks.
Health Minister Barbara Hogan said government policies over
the past 10 years had failed.
Her speech today marked a radical break in policy from her
predecessor Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, who had downplayed the
seriousness of the epidemic, mistrusted anti-Aids medicines
and instead advocated garlic and beetroot as a remedy.
Hogan told an international Aids vaccine conference that
countries such as South Africa - where life expectancy has
fallen to 52 years - desperately need scientists to come up
with a weapon against HIV.
"I'm told that it could take anything from 15 years to a
century to get an effective vaccine and that it's at least 25
years since the scientific community started looking for an
HIV vaccine," Hogan told 900 scientists from around the
world. "I challenge you to look harder and faster."
More than 6500 new HIV infections occur daily worldwide. A
recent high-profile trial of a potential vaccine not only
failed to prevent infection, but those who got the
inoculation also appeared at increased risk of infection
compared with those who were given a placebo.
It is the first time the Aids vaccine conference has been
held in Africa, which is at the epicenter of the epidemic.
South Africa has an estimated 5.5 million people infected
with Aids - the highest total in the world. About 550,000
people are receiving Aids medicines.
People with HIV can live for years if they receive the
necessary medicines.
The number of people on Aids medication has jumped by 10
times in the last six years, with some 300,000 taking Aids
drugs in 2003, compared to about 3 million in 2007.
Aids drugs have become much cheaper and more available
because of a variety of government and private programs.
Hogan said that more than half of all South African public
hospital admissions are Aids-related and more than
one-quarter of the national health budget goes to fighting
the disease. South Africa.
Hogan became health minister two weeks ago. Her speech
made it clear that she will mark a complete break from the
policies of her discredited predecessor.
"We know that HIV causes Aids," Hogan told delegates.
Her declaration marked the official end to a decade of denial
embodied by former President Thabo Mbeki and his health
minister about the link between HIV and Aids.
Her opening speech to the conference was received rapturously
by the scientists who enjoyed a frosty relationship with
Tshabalala-Msimang.
Malegapuru Makgoba, vice chancellor and principal of the
University of KwaZulu-Natal, said that for the first time in
years, South African academics are free to "state that HIV
causes Aids without getting threats."
"It is a liberating experience," Makgoba said at the
conference, winning applause. "You don't know how long we
suffered in bondage."
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