President Thabo Mbeki has called for continuing work to be done to monitor the efficacy of anti-retroviral interventions against mother-to-child transmission in the sites already operational as well as new ones being rolled out in several provinces.

Delivering his State of the Nation address during the opening of parliament, Mbeki broke his silence on the HIV/AIDS epidemic, calling for the focus to remain a massive prevention campaign directed at ensuring that the high rates of awareness translated into a change of lifestyles.

He added that the focus should also be on caring for the affected and infected, treatment of all diseases, including those associated with AIDS and research into vaccine.

Mbeki applauded the pharmaceutical companies for responding “very positively” to discussions on new ways of making drugs more affordable and to strengthen the health infrastructure.

Proceeding form the accepted premise that there was no cure to AIDS, Mbeki said he was convinced that, besides the individual and collective responsibility “for us to take care of our own lives, protection and enhancement of the immune system is a critical intervention in both the prevention and management of AIDS”.

“By implication, therefore, poverty reduction and appropriate nutrition constitute an important front in this campaign.”

Mbeki hinted at the fact that looking back at 2001, the very solid progress recorded by government had been overshadowed by developments in Zimbabwe and around HIV/AIDS.

Minister in the Office of the President Essop Pahad admitted after Mbeki’€™s speech that communication needed to be beefed up. He said a lot was happening to curb the HIV/AIDS epidemic, but that it needed to be communicated more effectively.

Moving to other health matters, Mbeki said that in each Province of the country, intense water and sanitation programmes were being implemented to improve hygiene, with emphasis on schools and cholera-affected localities in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape.

“Though we have contained the worst impact of this disease in these areas, we operate from the premise that the long-term solution is quality services to all,” he said.

Mbeki said the work that was being done by various institutions within or related to government on the health profile of the nation – the burden of disease, regional and local trends, mortality statistics and so on – was critical in fashioning a comprehensive response both in the public and private sectors.

“In addition to the many campaigns to change our lifestyles for healthier living, the focus of our programmes in the coming period will be the improvement in quality of services in public health.”

A common thread throughout Mbeki’€™s speech was the urgent need to alleviate poverty.

Hinting that the basic income grant will not get the nod, Mbeki said all those who were eligible for the child grant and other social allowances needed to be registered within the next three years.

He said that there would also be an increase in allocations to both old age pensions and child grants by far more than the rate of inflation.