St Albans College
20/20 Research project 2007/8
Global Infectious Diseases
HIV / AIDS
Background
Statistics
Research
suggests that the AIDS problem in South Africa is getting worse and not better.
In 1997 South Africa had 316 505 deaths due to AIDS whereas in there were 591
213 deaths. This is an overall increase in the death rate of 87% between 1997
and 2005. Antenatal clinics have found that the percentage prevalence of AIDS
in pregnant woman has worsened from 24.8% to 29.1% between 2001 and 2006. This
is a 4.3% increase over 5 years.
Politics
The past 5 years have been a roller coaster ride
of ups and downs for the South President Thabo Mbeki and his Department of
Health. Over this time period the
HIV/AIDS issue has been their biggest headache by far. In 2007, from the beginning of the year until
July 4, 2 180 024 people died of AIDS-related deaths. The huge annual increase of infection has
been the result of the department of health not planning adequately to combat
the diseases and provide support and knowledge to those already infected.
The Minister of Health, Manto Tshabala Msimang,
has become a global laughing stock since her appointment in 1999. At the International Aids conference in
Toronto she shared with the world’s best health scientists’ her views on how
people should use nutrition rather than ARV’s to fight the disease. Garlic, beetroot and lemons, she claimed, are
more powerful in the fight against AIDS than proven Anti Retro Virals. Stephen Lewis said that South Africa promoted
a “lunatic fringe” attitude to AIDS after hearing South Africa’s views at the
conference.
South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki himself has
been criticised for believing that HIV is not a cause of AIDS, a disease which
he says is a disease of “poverty”.
Although it may not seem so to many, South
Africa is now trying hard to address the issue in the most appropriate ways. However, there has been a lot of damage done
already, and the average man-on-the-street still clings to the untruths that
have been perpetuated by politicians and traditional leaders.
Anti-retrovirals
Due
to the high cost, South Africa has only recently initiated a policy of making
antiretroviral drugs available to people infected with HIV. However, AIDS
treatment costs have fallen rapidly over the last 10 years (from about $10,000
to $300 per-year per-person by some estimates) due to the production of cheaper
generic equivalents and price cuts by pharmaceutical companies.
In March 2005, the SA government awarded tenders to seven pharmaceutical
companies worth R3.4-billion for the supply of ARV drugs for public health
facilities. They’ve aimed at distributing Anti Retroviral to over 350 000 infected
people. So far only half that number has been reached, and with an infected
population of 5,5 million in South Africa we still have a long way to go. Nevirapine, a drug given to infected pregnant
women that stops the disease being passed on to their child is, however, being
successfully distributed. This drug has
a made a huge contribution to keeping the number of infections and deaths from
being even more disturbing.
The
problem however is the resistance of the general population to the use of the
drugs. The main reason for their resistance is the negative stigma attached to
the disease and the unwillingness of people to be tested. Secondly, even if
people knew their status and were willing to be treated, using the drugs
requires a disciplined approach, and most of the infected population does not
understand the importance of taking the drugs correctly and regularly.
The
success of the role-out of anti-retrovirals at ante-natal clinics could be
attributed to the fact that mothers see the treatment as being for their
babies, and not for themselves – thus they feel that there is no stigma
attached to taking the treatment.
A culture of denial
Unfortunately,
most South Africans are either misinformed or in a state of denial with regard
to HIV and AIDS. The bad press that has accompanied the disease, along with
archaic views expressed by many of the countries leaders, has led to a state of
misunderstanding and denial. People are
unwilling to be tested and will generally die from AIDS before they know their
status.
Our solution
Know your status
Having
considered all the information gained through our study we have come to a
rather simple conclusion. We believe that the most viable and powerful solution
to the AIDS problem in South Africa would be to ‘know your status’.
Once your HIV
status is known the possibility for appropriate intervention is opened up. If
you are HIV negative, then you can implement steps to ensure that you stay that
way. If you are HIV positive, then you can take the necessary steps to get
treated. The success of anti-retrovirals is excellent, and most patients can
expect to prolong their lives significantly by taking them. Thirdly, if people
are willing to find out their HIV status the government could be more proactive
in their attempt to manage the disease. If accurate numbers were available
regarding the number of infections in the country, then a better program to
combat the disease could be implemented.
Although most
traditional methods at solving the AIDS problem in South Africa have failed,
during our research we witnessed the effectiveness of the ‘personal testimony’ method. Here an HIV infected person speaks
openly about his/her experience and encourages others to be tested and find out their status. They share about
the increased quality of life they have experienced since starting with ARV’s
and how knowing your status can be the starting point of a positive future over
which you have a degree of control. There are a number of projects currently
operating on these principles, and their success is truly encouraging.
It is our
intention to translate our findings into practice by encouraging people to ‘know their status’. We intend to start
our campaign by challenging the boys in our College to be tested. We are
excited at the difference we can make in our country!
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Researched and compiled by:
Jason Hutchinson
Steven Bourhill
Tshego Mphafudi
Christopher
Burns
Wico Booysen
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