Despite the fact that, for the past 18 months, government has been providing antiretroviral (ARV) drugs in some public health facilities, this week’€™s national AIDS conference showed that the tension between the health ministry and many AIDS activists and scientists was as intense as before the ARV rollout.

Initially, there were rumours that the national health officials were boycotting the conference as, a week before the opening on Tuesday, none had registered.

However, on opening day Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang held a press conference at which she reiterated that people with HIV could choose between nutrition and ARVs.

She then arrived an hour late for the opening ceremony and proceeded to give a 45-minute address although she was not on the programme to speak.

During her speech, she ridiculed points raised by   Mamphela Ramphele, who had earlier given the keynote inaugural Nkosi Johnson Memorial Speech.

Ramphele had said that the best way to honour Nkosi’€™s memory was to ‘€œend denialism now’€.

She had also called on the medical profession to ‘€œstand up and say no to people misleading the public’€ about ‘€œthe role of ARV treatment and the benefits of good nutrition and nutritional supplements that anyone knows about, even my grandmother’€.

Tshabalala-Msimang did her best to downplay the impact of HIV, calling for equal attention to be paid to all illnesses.

But during the days that followed the often tense opening ceremony, researchers painted a picture of a disease that is having a devastating effect on communities throughout the country.

This year, 47% of all deaths are projected to be AIDS related, according to the Actuarial Society of Southern Africa.

Dr Ebrahim Variara from Klerksdorp-Tshepong Hospital, the biggest hospital in the North West, reported that two-thirds of deaths in the hospital’€™s medical wards between July 2003 and June 2004 were AIDS-related.

In addition, deaths in women younger than 40 were three times that of older women.

About 40 000 South African teachers (12.7%) are HIV positive. Over a quarter of young teachers aged between 25 and 34 are living with HIV. Some 12% of teachers had missed between 10 and 20 days’€™ work last year due to illness, reported Olive Shisana.

Shisana estimated that about 10 000 teachers were eligible for antiretroviral drugs, but that many ‘€“ particularly rural teachers ‘€“ had poor access to the drugs.

In Vulindlela, a community in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands, 27% of pregnant teens coming to local clinics for their first antenatal check-up last year were HIV positive, reported Ayesha Kharsany.

Teens with boyfriends over the age of 25 were six times more likely to be HIV positive than those with partners their own age.

Amidst the gloomy statistics, successes were reported from many ARV treatment sites, particularly those in the Western Cape, where good ARV adherence and low side effects were noted.

The Treatment Action Campaign and the AIDS Law Project released a critique of government’€™s comprehensive treatment and care plan called ‘€œLet them eat cake’€.

The ALP’€™s Fatima Hassan said that claims by the Health Minister that 90% of people at ARV treatment sites were getting nutrition were ‘€œsimply not true’€.

Hassan said that 6% of the 262 children on ARVs at Harriet Shezi Clinic at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, the biggest paediatric site in the country, had been   getting fortified porridge and milk formula. All food supplies had stopped in April.

She added that at most other sites, food parcels were ‘€œbeing stolen or rotting because there is no distribution plan’€.

Hassan added that ordinary people were confused by ‘€œthe artificial polarisation of traditional and Western medicine’€. As a consequence, they were delaying seeking ARV treatment.

‘€œWe want an end to the ambiguous messages and we don’€™t want an environment where it is easy for people from other countries to come into our country and cause confusion. Only the highest level leadership of the Health Minister herself can stop this,’€ said Hassan.

However, in the exhibition hall not far from where Hassan was speaking, the AIDS denialist Rath Foundation had set up a display where mainly foreigners, presided over by South African denialist Anthony Brink, were handing out oranges and anti-ARV literature. ‘€“ Health-e News Service.