S.Africa cites progress on AIDS

S.Africa cites progress on AIDS
Former South African president Nelson Mandela(C) chats with some of the musicians who will take part in the upcoming 46664 AIDS concert at the Ellispark stadium, October 29, 2007. Local and international musicians will perform at a concert in Johannesburg to raise money for his 46664 AIDS charity. The concert, which will coincide with World AIDS Day on December 1, is an offshoot of similar shows that have been held in South Africa, Spain and Norway. (Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters)JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa, which has one of theworld's worst AIDS epidemics, has made headway in fighting theHIV virus, but condom use is still insufficient, governmentleaders said on Saturday.
One in nine South Africans are infected with HIV, butPresident Thabo Mbeki's government has been criticized for notdoing enough to halt the spread of the disease despite theheavy economic and human toll.
Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang cited a studyshowing a decline in HIV among pregnant women -- a benchmarkused to measure infection amongst the broader population.
"The report of the 2006 antenatal survey results releasedthis year showed a decrease in the prevalence of HIV amongstpregnant women who use public health facilities," she wasquoted as saying by news agency SAPA.
"It is down to 29.1 percent in 2006 compared to 30.2percent in 2005 ... The decline in the under 20s from 15.9percent in 2005 to 13.7 percent in 2006, in particular suggestsa possible reduction in new infections in the population," shesaid at an event to mark World AIDS day in the northern Limpopoprovince.
Mbeki, who has been criticized for not taking the lead inthe charge against AIDS, called on South Africans to usecondoms.
"What is really of importance is that we must, all of us,take these messages very seriously, particularly our youngpeople," Mbeki said on SABC public radio.
STAR-STUDDED CONCERT
Mbeki's predecessor, Nelson Mandela, staged a star-studdedconcert expected to be attended by 50,000 in Johannesburg onSaturday to raise money for his AIDS charity.
"A few days ago, the United Nations estimated that morethan 33 million people around the world are living with HIV.This lower figure suggests that prevention programs have beensuccessful in bringing down infection rates," Mandela said.
"That trend is encouraging but it is still alarming thatfor every person that receives treatment there are four othersthat are newly infected," he told the crowd.
Elsewhere in Africa, events were also held to mark WorldAids Day. In Niger, around 3,000 people, mostly women and youngpeople, marched through the capital Niamey to demand moremeasures to help AIDS sufferers.
In the small West African state of Benin, President ThomasBoni Yayi headed a march to show solidarity for AIDS victims.
The Johannesburg concert was to include performances fromsingers Peter Gabriel, Annie Lennox, and Corinne Bailey Rae andits proceeds will go towards HIV/AIDS programs throughoutsouthern Africa, the epicenter of the worldwide AIDS epidemic.
The government relented to pressure and launched a plan toprovide life-prolonging anti-retroviral drugs in 2003, afterMbeki had questioned the safety of the medication and expresseddoubts about widely accepted science on the link between HIVand
AIDS.
But activists have complained that the program is movingfar too slowly, causing several hundred deaths each day. Some700,000 HIV patients are without treatment, especially bad inrural areas where clinics are saturated with a backlog ofcases.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who took on South Africa'sapartheid government as the country's first black bishop andwon the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize, said the battle was far fromwon."We face a monumental crisis, one that was horriblyexacerbated when we wasted valuable time in futile academicdiscussions and debates about the causes of AIDS," he said in aspeech to diplomats on Friday."We were fiddling whilst our Rome was burning. People whowould have been alive today, died needlessly."(Reporting by Gershwin Wanneburg and Bate Felix; Additionalreporting by Abdoulaye Massalatchi in Niamey and Samuel Elijahin Cotonou; Editing by Stephen Weeks)