South Africa: Durban Aids Conference Opens
By, Anso Thom, Health-e (Cape Town), June 6, 2007
While South Africa has taken "giant leaps" by reaching consensus on a national response to HIV/AIDS for the next five years, the biggest challenge is its implementation, Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka told the third national AIDS conference at its opening last night.
"I don't want to talk on stage about the plan. I want to go around and monitor implementation," said Mlambo-Ngcuka.
The deputy president said she was looking forward to the conference's recommendations, but she chastised the conference organisers for not giving health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang a more prominent role in the conference.
"The minister has withdrawn from the conference because of the place you gave her on the programme. You can't put someone who is the custodian of the department of health in a panel," said Mlambo-Ngcuka.
"I also don't think you are making the deputy minister of health's position easy by the way you are deploying her."
Tshabalala-Msimang was due to address this morning's plenary session while her deputy, Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge is to address tomorrow's plenary session.
UNAIDS Executive Director Dr Peter Piot said the AIDS conference could mark a turning point for South Africa. "If South Africa can achieve its aims, the country will be well on the way to leading Africa into a new phase in the AIDS response," he said.
Piot said the country's prevention of mother to child transmission programme was missing a major opportunity to integrate health services into the regular health system. "This should be a simple thing to do, but only 30 percent of pregnant women have access to these (PMTCT) services.
He added that it was vital to "change to higher gear on tuberculosis (TB) control".
"The emergence of extremely drug resistant TB strains is a dramatic wake-up call - if we don't factor and integrate TB into everything we do, we will get nowhere."
Piot ended that South Africa had a better chance than any other country in the region to deliver on AIDS. "If you can't, who can?"
Graca Machel called on every person in the country to take "personal responsibility" for speaking to friends and family about HIV and the importance of having an HIV test.
"We need to build a social movement around the struggle against AIDS," said Machel.
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/200706060324.html
While South Africa has taken "giant leaps" by reaching consensus on a national response to HIV/AIDS for the next five years, the biggest challenge is its implementation, Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka told the third national AIDS conference at its opening last night.
"I don't want to talk on stage about the plan. I want to go around and monitor implementation," said Mlambo-Ngcuka.
The deputy president said she was looking forward to the conference's recommendations, but she chastised the conference organisers for not giving health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang a more prominent role in the conference.
"The minister has withdrawn from the conference because of the place you gave her on the programme. You can't put someone who is the custodian of the department of health in a panel," said Mlambo-Ngcuka.
"I also don't think you are making the deputy minister of health's position easy by the way you are deploying her."
Tshabalala-Msimang was due to address this morning's plenary session while her deputy, Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge is to address tomorrow's plenary session.
UNAIDS Executive Director Dr Peter Piot said the AIDS conference could mark a turning point for South Africa. "If South Africa can achieve its aims, the country will be well on the way to leading Africa into a new phase in the AIDS response," he said.
Piot said the country's prevention of mother to child transmission programme was missing a major opportunity to integrate health services into the regular health system. "This should be a simple thing to do, but only 30 percent of pregnant women have access to these (PMTCT) services.
He added that it was vital to "change to higher gear on tuberculosis (TB) control".
"The emergence of extremely drug resistant TB strains is a dramatic wake-up call - if we don't factor and integrate TB into everything we do, we will get nowhere."
Piot ended that South Africa had a better chance than any other country in the region to deliver on AIDS. "If you can't, who can?"
Graca Machel called on every person in the country to take "personal responsibility" for speaking to friends and family about HIV and the importance of having an HIV test.
"We need to build a social movement around the struggle against AIDS," said Machel.
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/200706060324.html
posted by AIDS-Care-Watch at 9:50 am
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