S Africa to expand Aids treatment

[demoleft]

Source: al jazeera

Jacob Zuma, the South African president, has said his government will roll out life-prolonging anti-retroviral drugs to "significantly more people" infected with Aids from next year.

In a speech marking World Aids Day on Tuesday, Zuma compared the fight against Aids to the decades-long struggle against the apartheid government.

Zuma said: "At another moment in our history, in another context, the liberation movement observed that the time comes in the life of any nation when there remain only two choices: submit or fight.
...
South Africa has the largest population of HIV-infected people in the world, and the previous government was heavily criticised for its passive efforts to fight the virus.


Read more: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2009/12/2009121115918772701.html

---

december 1, 2009 - World Aids Day.
i posted these data this morning in GD as well:

33.4 million people living with HIV worldwide
31.3 million adults
15.7 million women
2.1 million children under 15
New HIV cases in 2007:2.7 million people
2.3 million adults
430,000 children under 15
HIV-related deaths in 2007:2 million total deaths

very sad.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7121909

[tabatha]

1. The blame for this lies squarely at the foot

of the destruction of the black family, the separation of men for months in the gold mines, etc., and also the decades of bad nutrition.

[applegrove]

3. Also because of all the horrid exploitation it was easier for some political leaders in SA

to say "this is white man's science so BULLSHIT on it". Now AIDS is such a horrid epidemic in SA that it cannot be ignored anymore. People will begin to get the help they need. Hopefully.

[applegrove]

2. Thank god. Finally!