World AIDS Day: South Africa To Test and Treat Every Baby

by Mike Smith · 2009-12-01 07:31:00 UTC
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To mark World AIDS Day, the South African government has announced a major initiative to test and treat all South African babies under the age of one if they test HIV-positive. The previous government asserted that anti-retroviral drugs would be too expensive and dangerous, but President Jacob Zuma is reversing this policy to try and help the 59,000 babies born with HIV each year. Critics accused previous president Thabo Mbeki of causing 300,000 deaths by not reacting quick enough. Zuma is framing this new policy and the beginning of an era of openness.

This announcement is in-line with the World Health Organization's (WHO) new advice to give HIV drugs sooner to patients who are ill, and also to give the drugs to breastfeeding mothers in order to prevent transmission of the disease.

Mike Foster, the British International Development Minister, explained that the changes would "significantly increase the demand for treatment," and went on to suggest that the UK supports cheaper manufacturing of drugs and the creation of new, affordable treatments. With 3 million lives saved due to retroviral drugs since 1996, what price is too high to help the 33.4 million people living with AIDS? Falling prices of HIV drugs led to almost a million extra people taking anti-retroviral drugs in 2008, so there is much to celebrate and be optimistic about, and much more to demand today on World AIDS Day.

Photo credit: america.gov

Mike Smith
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