Monday, April 26, 2010

South Africa Redoubles Efforts Against AIDS

South Africa is currently in a huge buildup of testing, treatment and prevention that United Nations officials say is the largest and fastest expansion of AIDs services ever attempted by any nation. South Africa is trying to overcome criticism for the former President Mbeki questioning whether HIV caused AIDs and suggested that anti-retroviral drugs were harmful. Harvard researchers estimated that the government could have prevented the premature deaths of 365,000 people during the last decade if it had provided the drugs to AIDS patients and medicines that help stop pregnant women from infecting their babies.

Current President Jacob Zuma inaugurated a campaign to test 15 million of the country’s 49 million people for H.I.V. by June 2011.

3 comments:

  1. This should be a great start for a country that has been troubled by AID's for years. With the recent advancements in AID's treatment they should be able to make a big difference in the premature deaths in Africa.

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  2. This is good news for South Africa and the fight against AID's. You have to wonder how much of this is really spurred on by the fact that the world cup is arriving in South Africa in the near future. Some have argued that the FIFA world cup shouldn't be held in South Africa, but it looks like this tournament will provide some sort of social and economic benefit to the country.

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  3. This is a great step forward in decreasing the AIDS problem in South Africa.

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