AIDS Activists Criticize S.

African President
AIDS activists and health experts today denounced South African President Thabo Mbekis handling
of the AIDS crisis, saying his government had at almost every conceivable turn mismanagedthe
epidemic.
Mbeki opened the 13th International AIDS Conference in Durban Sunday night with a speech
defending his governments commitment to fight AIDS, which has already claimed 4.2 million lives in
South African. He said he is looking for an African solution to the epidemic.
Mbeki has outraged scientists in the past by questioning whether HIV, the human immunodeficiency
virus, causes AIDS. He has also sparked controversy by refusing to give the drug AZT to pregnant
women and rape victims under the countrys public health system on the grounds of high costs. He
did not mention either issue in his speech, but instead launched a broadside against his critics.
Governmental Ineptitude
The chief organizer of the conference, Hoosen Coovadia, said many attendees felt an absolute sense
ofdisappointment in Mbekis speech.
Many people believe that the president woulduse the occasion to try and quell some of the disquiet
aroundgovernments position on HIV-AIDS, Coovadia said.
Edwin Cameron, a South African high courtjudge who is HIV-positive, criticizedMbekis government
for failing to take action.

In my own country, a government that in its commitment tohuman rights and democracy has been a
shining example to Africaand the world has at almost every conceivable turn mismanagedthe
epidemic, he said.
So grevious has governmental ineptitude been that SouthAfrica has since 1998 had the fastestgrowing HIV epidemic inthe world.
Experts have estimated that nearly 8 million South Africans will be infected with HIV/AIDS by the

end of the decade.

We have failed to take HIV/AIDS seriously, said Winne Madikizela-Mandela, ex-wife of former
President Nelson Mandela and head of the African National Congress WomensLeague. That failure is
a betrayal of our struggle for socialjustice and hope for our society.
They Died Because Theyre Poor
In his speech, Mbeki stressed the devastating impact poverty has had on Africa. As he spoke,
thousands of demonstrators marched to protest the high price of drugs to fight AIDS. They blamed
both the government and pharmaceutical companies.
Today, U.N. AIDS Executive Director Peter Piot called for debt relief so that AIDS-stricken countries
could spend more money on battling the disease.
Lets remember that African countries alone pay $15 billion per year in terms of debt repayments,
$15 billion, thats four times as much as on education and health, he said.
Zackie Achmat, chairman of South Africas Treatment Action Campaign, said although he is HIVpositive, he refuses to take some medicines that could improve his health and prolong his life until
they are available to everyone.
I wouldnt personally want to be involved in a holocaust against poor people, he told ABCNEWS Good
Morning America.
Last year, 150,000 South Africans died of illnesses and they died because theyre poor, Achmat said.
They cannot afford the revolutionary new medicines that have made many people in our country and
in our world live much longer.
Demanding Access to Drugs
Many conference delegates are asking and some are demanding that giant pharmaceutical
companies give their products away, arguing its the only way to keep alive poor AIDS victims in
Third World countries.
Jeffrey Sturchio, spokesman for the pharmaceutical manufacturer Merck and Co., said AIDS activists
and drug companies share a lot of common ground, but they may differ on how to improve access.
No company and no country can address this problem alone, he said on Good Morning America.
Whats needed is a new approach to global public health with all stakeholders coming together to
address this question with the resources and expertise they can bring to bear with it.
Merck announced today that it is teaming with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to spend $100
million to fight AIDS in the African nation of Botswana, the worlds worst-hit AIDS country. In
Botswana, more than one-third of all adults are infected with HIV, experts believe.
We All Ought to Be Mobilizing
Meanwhile, some alarming predictions on AIDS were released at the conference:.
The populations of some AIDS-stricken African countries will soon begin to fall as millions die of the

disease.
Life expectancy in Africa could plunge to 30 years of age by 2010 because of people dying early from
AIDS. For instance, life expectancy is now 39 in Botswana, instead of 71 what it wouldhave been
without AIDS.
This epidemic in South Africa and around the world is out of control and the numbers are staggering
and we all ought to be mobilizing to do more, said Sandra Thurman, the U.S. AIDS czar.
Experts estimate that 25 million Africans are already infectedwith HIV, and most of them will die
within the nextfive to eight years. In South Africa, an estimated 10 percent of the nations 44 million
people are HIV-positive.
ABCNEWS Jim Wooten, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=83196