Make a Difference - World AIDS Day 1st Dec 2008

The South African National AIDS Council (SANAC), with representation from all sectors of government and civil society, together with NEDLAC, have agreed that at 12.00 noon on World AIDS Day, Monday December 1st, the Deputy President will ask all people in South Africa to stop and observe and act on World AIDS day.

From individuals to organisations, from government departments to schools, all people will be called on to stop what they are doing so that the country can come together to focus on how we are going to stop the HIV epidemic, stop new HIV infections and stop deaths.

Read more…
http://groups.google.com/group/church-and-business-against-hiv-and-aids/t/f5be5bb68b7fcafe
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World AIDS Day - 1st December 2008

Take the LEAD

Learn: the facts, the statistics, the prevention messages
Educate: those around you, your family, share the message
Accountable: hold yourself, business, community and government leaders accountable
Do something: make a difference, from today; speak out, become involved, get tested

LEAD by example: World AIDS day 1st Dec 2008

Did Hogan say it or not? "We know that HIV causes AIDS."

Speech by the Minister of Health Ms Barbara Hogan at the HIV vaccine research conference
13 - 16 October 2008, Cape Town, ICC

From the TAC site:
http://www.tac.org.za/community/node/2421

......This meeting will surely instil hope in the majority of people in South Africa who are looking to science for evidence –based prevention interventions for HIV such as a vaccine or microbicide.

We know that HIV causes AIDS. The science of HIV and AIDS is one of one of the most researched subject in the medical field. The social science of the epidemic is still to catch up to this level. Since its discovery as the cause of AIDS in the early 1980s, the end is still not near in the road towards the discovery of an effective vaccine against HIV.

As the basic and medical science of HIV and AIDS evolved, the epidemic continued to grow rapidly in South Africa. In 1982 the first person with AIDS died in South Africa......


From the DOH site:
http://www.doh.gov.za/docs/sp/sp1013-f.html

......This meeting will surely instil hope in the majority of South Africans who are looking up to science for solutions to HIV and AIDS.

The science of HIV and AIDS is one of one of the most researched subject in the medical field. The social science of the epidemic is still to catch up to this level. Since its discovery as the cause of AIDS in the early 1980s, the end is still not near in the road towards the discovery of an effective vaccine against this disease.

As the basic and medical science of HIV and AIDS evolved, the epidemic continued to spread like a real virus in the South Africa. It's in the late 1980s that the first cases of HIV and AIDS were identified in this country......



Why the difference in what is reported to have been said by the new Minister of Health? What games are being played here and by whom?

Minister of Health Ms Barbara Hogan at the HIV vaccine research conference

Speech by the Minister of Health Ms Barbara Hogan at the HIV vaccine research conference

13 - 16 October 2008, Cape Town, ICC

Chair of Conference - Professor Lynn MorrisHonourable Deputy Minister of Science and Technology - Mr Derek Hanekom Executive Director of the HIV Vaccine Enterprise - Professor Alan Bernstein, Scientists and Clinicians here present, Ladies and Gentlemen.

It gives me great pleasure to be speaking at this opening ceremony of one of the most important meetings happening in the world today; a meeting about international exchange of information on HIV vaccine research and development.

To the South African government and its people, there can't be any other more important meeting at this point in time. I congratulate you on the decision to hold the conference in the African continent; in the Sub-Saharan region; in South Africa. This is the Continent, the Region and a Country in great need of solutions to the HIV and AIDS epidemic.

The presence of people of your calibre is great honour to our country. I know that the fairest Cape won't fail to provide you with an environment appropriate for this kind of meeting; we have already provided you with world-class researchers, all women, to ensure that the objectives of the meeting are met.

This meeting will surely instil hope in the majority of South Africans who are looking up to science for solutions to HIV and AIDS.

The science of HIV and AIDS is one of one of the most researched subject in the medical field. The social science of the epidemic is still to catch up to this level. Since its discovery as the cause of AIDS in the early 1980s, the end is still not near in the road towards the discovery of an effective vaccine against this disease.

As the basic and medical science of HIV and AIDS evolved, the epidemic continued to spread like a real virus in the South Africa. It's in the late 1980s that the first cases of HIV and AIDS were identified in this country. The Annual National Surveys on HIV and Syphilis that we started conducting in 1990 suggests that we had at least ten years of rapid spread of this disease in our communities - especially among the most vulnerable groups in society - women and the youth. The introduction of HIV to a society in political transition was one of the most peculiar vulnerability factors in this country. The transition for the apartheid regime comprises undoing years of one of the most atrocious systems of oppression of the majority populations seen anywhere in the world - the apartheid regime. It is this history that has rendered the majority of the population, who had poor access to information and resources, at risk for HIV infection.

These are the people too that did not have adequate resources and means to deal with established HIV infection in their communities. This was indeed the "witches brew" - the perfect environment and formula for the spread of this disease amongst our ranks. So indeed we saw this fastest rate of spread of HIV during the first decade of our hard-earned freedom and democracy.

The Health sector bears the brunt of this epidemic, with more than half of hospital admissions in the public health system presenting with HIV and AIDS related complications, increased mortality in the general population but particularly affecting pregnant women and children under the age of five, increased incidence and mortality of Tuberculosis and recently the development of extremely drug-resistant TB, emergence of uncommon opportunistic diseases and malignancies, diversion of no less than a quarter of the total National Health budget to the fight against this epidemic.

The household in the poorest communities (especially in the many informal settlements) are the worst affected by this epidemic. Women, especially because of their role in the family and society, are the most affected. Even as we are confronted with this challenge, there are great stories of human strength to overcome the human tragedy associated with AIDS. The fact that we have volunteers to participate in HIV trials alone cannot be underestimated.

The initial National responses were premised on understanding of these driving factors, stressing the importance of a multisectoral approach. As medical science evolved, there was a tendency to rely on such developments as "magic bullets". Our experience has taught us that there are no easy solutions to this complex epidemic. Medical solutions are an essential element of a comprehensive and effective National response to the epidemic. I invite you study the current National Strategic Plan for HIV and AIDS where we define our challenge in a detailed manner and wherein we outline some relevant interventions towards significant reduction of new HIV infections and mitigation of the impact of the disease on individuals and society.

With our partners including researchers, the country is organised and committed to implement this Plan. With our partners, we concluded that in order to break the back of this epidemic, we have to reduce the rate of new infections by half during the NSP period. Ladies and gentlemen, I am sure we all agree that an effective HIV vaccine has to be found. We are looking up to you, with much optimism in achieving this.

We are however encouraged by the observed tendency towards stabilisation of the epidemic in many countries in the African continent and certainly in South Africa. It is not time to celebrate yet, because even our epidemic is stabilising at very high rates of prevalence. The report of the United Nations Secretary General to the recent HIV and AIDS High Level Meeting of the General Assembly asserts that in many parts of the world, for each person enrolled started on anti-retroviral therapy (ART), three to four people are newly infected with HIV. A substantial proportion of our significant HIV and AIDS budget is allocated and used for the implementation of our large ART programme. With about 550 000 thousand people enrolled on ART to date, the largest number in any country in the world, we have a lot of experience with this. We now have to consider new and safer treatment options at significant budgetary implications to the State. We have to make HIV prevention to work better and faster.

The past ten years of HIV prevention activities are beginning show some modest outcomes and impacts. This is far from enough, far from the NSP target, we need to see a convincing and significant decline in prevalence that is not caused by mortality or out migration, but is a real and susbstantial decrease in the rate of new infections - the fifty percent that the country is aspiring to by 2011.

Ladies and gentlemen, it was imperative to get ahead of the curve of this epidemic ten years ago. We all, for various reasons, have lost ground. It's even more imperative now that we make HIV prevention work; we desperately need an effective HIV vaccine.

We have to do all that is necessary to get to an effective HIV and AIDS vaccine in the shortest time possible. I'm told that it could take anything from fifteen years to a century to get to an effective vaccine, and that it's at least twenty-five years since the scientific community started looking for an HIV vaccine. I challenge you to look harder and faster, in the responsible and professional manner that I am aware you are capable of.

Five months ago in May, my predecessor Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, concerned as we all are by the unexpected results of the search for a vaccine and female microbicides, led a National Imbizo - a Colloquium - with researchers. I am told that there were frank and useful discussions at this meeting and there was input also from the International community. Whilst scientists have acknowledged the gaps in knowledge regarding some aspects of the structure of the virus, the human immune system, the HIV transmission dynamics, and the pathogenesis of immune destruction, a lot has been learnt from the twenty-five years of scientific research in this regard. We need to continue this essential dialogue between scientists and policy makers, with the affected communities at the centre of such engagements.

There is consensus about the complexity of the science of HIV and AIDS.

Scientists, Clinicians and policy makers are now geared to deal with the problem in its complexity. There are no simple solutions to HIV and AIDS.

My advisers tell me that we now know that a simple gp120 monomer failed to neutralise the viral envelope, because the envelope actually occurs as a trimer and is more complex than previously thought. We could not have reached that point in understanding if we didn't try the gp120 monomer - the highest point of knowledge at the time that this hypothesis was considered. The explanations for vaccine failure should inform further work in this area. It is important to know that which does not work.

Let me take this opportunity to congratulate Dr Francois Barre-Sinoussi and her colleagues on the Nobel Prize that is to be awarded for their efforts in the field.

Chairperson, my address to this conference cannot be complete without reference to the South African AIDS Vaccine Initiative (SAAVI). The SAAVI HIV Vaccine Development Programme is a formidable part of the African AIDS Vaccine Programme and the Global AIDS Vaccine Enterprise. It is recognised especially in developing countries and by the World Health Organisation.

With active Clinical Trials sites in the provinces of Mpumalanga, Kwa-Zulu Natal, North West, Gauteng, Western Cape and Eastern Cape, a lot of expertise and infrastructure has been developed through SAAVI activities in the country, regulatory expertise has improved, and clinical trial capacity expanded. I hope that you'll make time from your busy schedule to visit one more rural clinical trial sites in the country.

We actually have developed and manufactured multiple candidate HIV Vaccines and these should enter human clinical trials soon. Partnerships with the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, the Centre for HIV & AIDS Vaccine Immunology, the HIV Vaccine Trial Network, and the NIH have specifically been indispensable in this regard. Please allow me to single out specifically the support that we receive from the Executive Director of the AIDS Vaccine Enterprise, Professor Alan Bernstein and the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the NIH, Professor Anthony Fauci in this regard. We are proud of SAAVI and are committed to strengthen the operations of this initiative.

The Department of Health welcomes the Department of Science and Technology -led South African AIDS Prevention Research Evidence Network. It is encouraging to know that we can always count on our local and international partners for assistance. We salute the scientists, the clinicians, and the trial participants who have assisted us to advance to this point, and we look forward to seeing the results at a alter stage.

Ladies and gentlemen, we all have to respect the invaluable contribution to knowledge development of the peoples of South Africa in this regard. Whilst we boast about the expertise and infrastructure in the country, we are also mindful of the antithesis inherent in the opportunity presented by the vast amount of experience with new HIV infection and AIDS amongst vulnerable populations in South Africa and the Sub-Saharan region. Doing research amongst these groups presents a huge responsibility on the part of those who have the expertise. The experience of high risks of exposure to HIV infection is not a particularly happy and desirable one. The communities amongst which most of the research is done are often poor and vulnerable. Adherence to ethical requirements is even more relevant because of this. This responsibility is acutely important for the elected representatives of research subjects - the local councillors, members of provincial legislatures, members of national parliament as well as the administrative arm of government - have to be engaged in a meaningful way in this important search for knowledge and solutions. They are the gateway to these communities. I urge the HIV Vaccine Enterprise to continue to instil caring attitudes and to sensitise its members about these issues. Issues of the Consent for research, Standards of Care, and empowerment of trial participants, compensation for injury, especially for women should not be taken for granted.

In South Africa, the Medicines Control Council is responsible for the authorisation and monitoring of clinical trials. International protocols often have to be adapted to fit the local environment. Our regulatory system is one of the most sophisticated in the African region.

Chair of conference, in concluding, let me take the opportunity to once again express our immense pleasure to host this conference. We salute the local organising committee, distinguished guests, and representatives from various backgrounds. International guests are particularly welcome. I wish the conference well as it progresses. May the novel presentations and debates liberate new ways of pushing the field forward.

South Africa is committed to working towards the development of new technologies and we will provide the necessary support to scientists and clinicians for this purpose. We are looking to a time when an effective HIV vaccine will be available.

I thank you.