WHO wants 500 000 on treatment in SA
Dr Jim Yong Kim, WHO director of HIV/AIDS, said the WHO would like to see half a million of those South Africans who need antiretroviral therapy on treatment by the end of next year.
‘You have all the infrastructure and expertise to scale up really quickly,’ he said, adding that South Africa could lead the charge in increasing access to treatment.
‘We believe this is a rational, reasonable target for South Africa. The technical capacity in South Africa exceeds the technical capacity of Africa. The WHO stands ready to do whatever it can to help,’ said Kim.
‘If we can get South Africa to scale up quickly, then the rest of Africa will do the same,’ he said.
Asked if setting a target of numbers might not result in short cuts, Kim acknowledged that this was always an issue and stressed that ‘deadly short cuts’ had to be avoided.
‘We need to set numbers so that people will do more. Let’s move but don’t take deadly short cuts, we should keep safeguards in place.’
Kim said that while conditions were different in each country, South Africa should lead the rest of Africa to reach the WHO target of 3000 people on treatment by 2005.
‘It’s do-able,’ he added emphatically.
In a plenary address to the International AIDS conference Kim, said the new resources that had been made available for HIV/AIDS provided hope, but much more needed to be done.
‘We have failed to do enough in the precious time since [the previous International AIDS conference] in Barcelona. The hope we insist on today is tinged with grief.’
The WHO ‘three by five’ objective, to treat 3000 people by 2005, had been endorsed by all 192 member states and the urgency now was to assist nations to live up to their commitment.
To critics who said the goal was unrealistic, Kim said this target had been set in order to motivate people to act.
‘What we want to hear is what are the obstacles, how can we work better, faster to achieve our goal. Let’s just make it happen.’
Kim lauded the leadership role played by activists in urging governments and international organizations to respond to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Mentioning Zackie Achmat and the Treatment Action Campaign by name, Kim included them among a worldwide list of individuals and groups who had made a difference.
‘Activists must hold our feet to the hottest fire,’ he told the conference. ‘If you don’t continue to push us, we will falter.’
Quoting Martin Luther King, Kim said that the time available to bring about change in the HIV/AIDS pandemic could be used destructively on constructively.
‘We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people,’ he said.
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