• Health
• South Africa

ShareThis

Average rating

 

 

 

 

 

(0 votes)

Rate this: ---Excellent!Great!GoodQuite goodNot so great

• Login to post comments

SOUTH AFRICA: As the nation gathers at the Pretoria show grounds today for President Jacob Zuma’s World AIDS Day address, LGBTI organisations country-wide are doing their bit to commemorate this day, raising awareness about the pandemic that has claimed an estimated 25 million lives worldwide.

Themed, “I am responsible. We are responsible. South Africa is taking responsibility,” today will be marked by various activities and gatherings throughout the world.

OUT-LGBT Wellbeing will commemorate World AIDS Day by providing free HIV testing at its VCT clinic in Pretoria. “The tests will be confidential and free, performed by our warm and friendly professional staff from 10:00 until 19:00,” Elmie Munday, a Clinic nurse for OUT LGTB Well-Being said.

OUT will also set up a testing area at Club Legends on 5 December 2009, where all participants that test for HIV before 9 pm will get free entry, and those that test after 9 pm will receive a voucher that can buy them a free drink.

“HIV/AIDS is not a death sentence, therefore each one of us has to take up the responsibility to get tested and eliminate the transmission of HIV,” said Munday. Talking specifically about today, Munday said “the significance of World AIDS Day is to acknowledge the fight against HIV. We also acknowledge those who lost the fight against HIV, as well as the loss their families have experienced.”

Junaid Seedat, Communication, Advocacy and Campaigns Manager of the South African National Aids Council said individuals should take responsibility for their own health, life and the people in their lives. “In so doing you are protecting yourself,” Seedat said.

According to UNAIDS there are more than 33.4 million people living with HIV in the world.
Furthermore in 2008, 2.7 million people became infected with the virus and an estimated 2 million people died from AIDS. And around half of these people became infected with HIV before the age of 25 and died from of AIDS before the age of 35. 

Meanwhile the  national Minister of Health in South Africa, Aaron Motsoaledi ,recently revealed the shocking numbers of HIV/AIDS deaths in the country, vowing to implement measures to respond to the pandemic.

On the other hand, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) has called on former president Thabo Mbeki to apologise for his failure to respond to HIV and AIDS effectively during his term of office. This after COSATU called for the former president to be charged with genocide, for the alleged failure. 

Article by: Mongezi Mhlongo (Behind The Mask Senior Reporter)