POSITIVELY RED! AIDS AWARENESS WEEK

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Some Positives at Last
The recent shift in the South African government’s policy towards the HIV/AIDS pandemic reminds us all that progress is possible
Sub-Saharan Africa is home to 10% of the world’s population, but over 70% of those living with HIV. HIV/AIDS is of course a global pandemic, but Africa remains the epicentre and such is the regional financial and political influence of South Africa that it is in this country that the fight against AIDS will be won or lost.
It is estimated that 1,000 people die each day of AIDS in South Africa and that 20% of those aged 15 to 49 has HIV. The consequences extend beyond any physical illness however, and confronting the stigma surrounding HIV is as big a challenge.
Until recently however, the government’s policy towards HIV has been one of denial and ignorance. The South African health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang this year presented to delegates of the AIDS conference in Toronto a diet of beetroot, lemons and garlic as an alternative treatment to anti-retroviral therapy. Indeed, President Mbeki famously denied he had ever known anyone who had died of AIDS, and questioned the efficacy of ART. Other members of the administration have been guilty of similar statements of ignorance. Jacob Zuma, the former deputy president, stated he had showered following unprotected sex to avoid catching the virus during his trial for rape.
Such sentiments only serve to propagate the stigma surrounding HIV; they have led the United Nations to conclude this policy of denial is “wrong, immoral and indefensible."
Recently however, there has been a sea change in the attitude of the South African government such that should give us hope that change and progress are possible. Ms. Tshabalala-Msimang may not have been removed from office, as campaigners around the world have called for, but her authority has at least been undermined.
President Mbeki has chosen to marginalise his health minister by the appointment his deputy Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka to head an AIDS task force. In the past month Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka has gone on to meet with AIDS campaigners in the country, something the government has previously been unwilling to do, and to publicly state that HIV causes AIDS and the ART is essential if the pandemic is to be arrested. Such small steps represent a new honesty among the leadership of the country that holds the key to defeating both the disease itself and the past inequalities that fostered it.
Ultimately, to truly combat AIDS we must challenge the stigma not only on the level of government but throughout society. Only then will we be in a position where openness about HIV status can be considered seriously. That means breaking the fear associated with AIDS, that same fear shrouding infectious disease since the leprosy of biblical times. It’s no mean feat. We must trust nurses and Doctors with AIDS in our hospitals, trust HIV positive teachers with our children at school, trust politicians with AIDS to be in charge of matters of state. HIV-AIDS is treatable. Perhaps it is a matter of believing that truth.
The debate comes to Imperial on Wednesday 29th at the Alexander Fleming Building. The motion: 'This House Believes that HIV status should be public knowledge'. There be food and drink a-plenty. On Sunday the 26th theres the Dodgeball final at Ethos, an Art Exhibition on Monday 27th in the Ante Room, Sherfield. The week's finale will be Friday 1st - World AIDS Day with an Extravaganza at DJ's in the Union with cheap drinks, shisha cafe, fire juggling and Sub Red! Join us to celebrate our Positively Red! AIDS awareness and fund-raising events at Imperial. For more details see: www.positivelyred.co.uk

Joe Ward and Oly Todd.

Insert:
History says, Don't hope
On this side of the grave,
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed-for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up
And hope and history rhyme.

Seamus Heaney