South Africa Steps Up Fight Against AIDS

Close to 5.5 million of the 47 million South African population are infected with HIV, and up to 2,000 patients are dying each day from AIDS complications, according to statistics from the Actuarial Society of South Africa.

But in recent weeks, the South African government has placed its deputy president, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, in the forefront of this AIDS effort, and she seems to be turning around negative perceptions of the government's performance. She's called for intensification of the fight against the disease, imploring all sectors of the society to get on board.

Moreover, with the minister of health ailing, the deputy health minister, Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, has moved in an unprecedented way, publicly acknowledging the government's confusing messages on HIV and criticizing the emphasis on traditional medicine touted by the ministers, saying, "It is absolutely irresponsible to say to people who are desperate and want to live, 'Oh, go to your traditional healer if you want,' because which traditional healers do we know who know how to treat AIDS? I don't know of any in my country."

The minister says she's been told in the past she could lose her job, but that she believes the government now wants a clear and consistent message. And until recently, she was pulling out all the stops to deliver it.

Top government officials have suddenly gone silent, saying that they've said all they have to say, that, in fact, there is nothing new about their approach to the HIV and AIDS pandemic. But in these streets and elsewhere, people living among and working with HIV-infected people say that there is new leadership, they see a new direction, and as a result they have new hope.

SISTER SUE ROBERTS: Things are definitely starting to turn around. We're lucky because of the high volume of patients we see here.

Street committees make regular visits to neighbors, many of whom are ignorant about HIV-AIDS and, because of the stigma, are afraid to ask or be tested. They call their approach holistic, hoping to win over people first with offers of general assistance, and over time introduce the subject of AIDS.

In time, Andrnea Chauke became comfortable enough to share that her sister passed away six months ago from AIDS complications. At this point, she's learning more about the disease than she ever knew.

ANDRNEA CHAUKE: I learned a lot of things, because I didn't know how AIDS worked. So now I know lot of things, I'm so happy, because it's very sensitive.

CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: Mapula Prudence Mokae is one of those teaching her neighbors now. But when her sister died of AIDS complications 10 years ago, she, too, was in the dark. Mapula believes more openness about AIDS could have safe saved her sister, as well as Andrenia's.

MAPULA PRUDENCE MOKAE, Community Action: Yes, if I was having that information about HIV and AIDS, yes, I think she would be alive.

CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: Some experts, like Dr. Francois Venter, head of the South African HIV Clinician Society, believe inaction over the past decade may have led to at least four million deaths. Mapula inherited her sister's infant daughter, now 10, whom she has reared along with her own two children.

Her ignorance about AIDS meant it would be another 10 years before she realized that her little niece was HIV-positive. But at least she's not one of the almost one million AIDS orphans in the country who've stretched the extended family beyond the limits, and who now must rely on the few, mostly poorly funded orphanages that have sprung up, or make it the best way they can, which often means on the streets.

But now, Mapula says, with more positive messages from government, her job is becoming easier.

MAPULA PRUDENCE MOKAE: When I pass the street, they just call me, "Mapula, come, come here, we want to ask you." Then they just ask, "You see in that house there's something," then I'll be proud for that. At least these people are listening when I'm talking to them.

MARK HEYWOOD, Treatment Action Campaign: It creates a tangible hope where previously there was a despair and confusion.

CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: Heywood says, however, that he has yet to see the practical implementation of the new approach.

MARK HEYWOOD: It is a little early, but, you know, when you've got a thousand deaths a day -- as we do still in South Africa -- a little early is very, very late. And if you can advance the process by one week or two week or two months then, in fact, you have the potential to stop a lot of devastation and a lot of pain and a lot of suffering, and that's the urgency that we still think is required.