IAS opening session

The challenge of HIV/Aids must be overcome as soon as humanly possible in order to produce a HIV/Aids-free generation. This was the message by deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe at the opening address of the 5th International Aids Society conference currently underway in Cape Town.

“In order to find a vaccine, we need to better understand the virus and how it function,” Motlanthe said to delegates at this conference aimed at the pathogenesis, treatment and prevention of HIV. He highlighted the importance of understanding the epidemiology of the disease, as well as the social implications that HIV/Aids have on those infected and affected by the disease.

Motlanthe admitted that the department of health faced various challenges with its management of HIV/Aids epidemic and acknowledge that issues such as drug supply shortages, the acceleration of diagnosis and initiation of treatment, have to be addressed.

“We also know that there is a high degree of co-infection of TB and HIV,” said Motlanthe and acknowledged the need for additional measures to ensure that HIV-patients will be tested for TB, and TB-patients be tested for HIV. “Our policy to integrate this strategy with due regard to proper infection control.”

Various speakers expressed their concern with regard to dwindling funding for HIV/Aids due to the global financial crisis. “We don’t just have HIV/Aids like any other country, we have the worst and most severe form of it,” said local co-chair for IAS 2009, Dr Jerry (Hoosen) Coovadia referring to the high prevalence of HIV/Aids in South Africa. “And what is worse, it comes at a time when money is scarce and resources are few”.

“We have a huge antiretroviral programme, and we need your help because we have never experienced health need and a health service on such a massive scale,” Coovadia pleaded to the 5,000-plus doctors, scientists and other experts in the field of HIV/Aids that have gathered to discuss the latest research and findings on this topic.

Dr Julio Montaner, IAS 2009 chair and IAS president said: “Despite the recession, the global response to HIV – including the commitment of resources to achieve universal access to HIV prevention and treatment, fully fund Aids research and strengthen underlying health systems – cannot be put in a holding pattern. Either we move forward or we will fall back. That is the reality we face at this pivotal moment in HIV scale-up.”

“Globally they are facing the economic recession and I want to remind our world leaders that maternal health is not in recession,” said Viyuseka Dubula, general secretary of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), highlighting the plight of women who die during childbirth due to complications caused by HIV-infection. Statistics on maternal mortality for sub-Saharan women are shocking, she said. “One in 22 women are at risk of dying [in sub-Saharan Africa], compared to women in developed countries, that are one in 8,000,” Dubula stressed.

(Wilma Stassen, Health24/July 2009)