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PublicationsInternational Activity Report 2003South Africa
International staff: 7 MSF began HIV/AIDS work in South Africa in 1999 MSF continues to focus on HIV/AIDS treatment and care in South Africa. During 2003, tension in the country over the controversial government HIV/AIDS policy increased, peaking with a civil disobedience campaign led by the Treatment Action Campaign to protest the lack of government commitment to a national treatment plan. In 2003 the government had constantly delayed key decisions and repeatedly released misleading messages about the efficacy and supposed toxicity of antiretrovirals (ARVs). Policy change only happened in August 2003, immediately after the first national HIV/AIDS conference, when the South African scientific and medical community joined voices with activists and people living with HIV to demand treatment from the government. In less than two months, the Department of Health produced a comprehensive AIDS plan, which is still to be approved by the Cabinet. At MSF's Khayelitsha AIDS program over 650 people are now on ARV treatment, and many thousands more receive treatment for opportunistic infections and medication to prevent mother-to-child transmission of the virus. Since January 2003, MSF has also been working in Lusikisiki, a rural town located in the former Transkei, one of the poorest areas in South Africa. This program is run in partnership with the Nelson Mandela Foundation, and aims to develop a model for implementing comprehensive AIDS services in remote rural areas. Each month, MSF provides voluntary counseling and testing for more than 500 people and medical care to more than 200 HIV/AIDS patients; ARV treatment will begin in October 2003. |
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