South Africa slammed at Aids summit

South Africa came under withering attacks at the closing of the week-long global Aids conference yesterday, with some of the world’s leading Aids experts accusing the government of ignoring the epidemic and promoting “lunatic” prevention methods.

As the 16th International Aids Conference concluded in Toronto, Canada – after promising news about trials of prevention approaches using microbicides and male circumcision – leaders called on governments to keep their financial pledges to fund the global fight against the epidemic.

Stephen Lewis, the UN special envoy for Aids in Africa, criticised the G8 countries for not living up to Aids funding promises and insisted the tragic spread of HIV cannot be stemmed until women in developing countries have control over their sex lives.

Lewis – one of the most eloquent spokesmen in the cause to end the epidemic that has claimed 40 million lives in 25 years – said that of all the things that has infuriated him in his Aids work, “South Africa is the unkindest cut of all.”

“It is the only country in Africa whose government continues to promote theories more worthy of a lunatic fringe than of a concerned and compassionate state,” he said.

South Africa’s contentious minister of health, Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, promotes nutrition and natural remedies as key weapons in the fight against HIV-Aids, and has questioned, along with South African President Thabo Mbeki, the efficacy of antiretroviral drugs.

Tshabalala-Msimang drew criticism at the conference for using South Africa’s booth in the exhibition hall to promote a natural recipe for treating HIV: lemons, garlic and beetroot. South African activists trashed the booth earlier in the week.

Lewis, who has been barred from UN work in South Africa, conceded that some have said it is not politically correct for a UN envoy to publicly condemn a member state.

“It is not my job to be silenced by a government when I know that what it is doing is wrong, immoral and indefensible,” he said.

UNAIDS estimates that more than 19% of people aged 15 to 49 in South Africa are HIV-positive.

The South African government counters criticism by insisting that it has stepped up its care and treatment programme, claiming it recently became the largest in the world. The ruling African National Congress described similar Lewis statements earlier in the week as ”unacceptable”.

Lewis – whose term concludes at the end of this year and whose remarks were greeted with sustained applause – said another undeniable fact in the battle against Aids is the inequality of women and how that puts them at high risk of becoming infected.

According to UNAIDS, by the end of 2005, women accounted for 48% of all adults living with HIV worldwide, and for 59% in sub-Saharan Africa.

“It is the one area of HIV and Aids which leads me feeling most helpless and most enraged,” he said. “It’s a ghastly, deadly business, this untrammelled oppression of women in so many countries on the planet.”

Dr Mark Wainberg, co-chairman of the conference, also condemned the South African government and questioned how many millions of HIV cases were attributable to “the failure of certain world leaders” to accept science and care for their people.

“It is something that burns a hole through my heart,” said Wainberg.

Lewis also condemned G8 countries for not living up to their pledges at their 2005 G8 summit in Scotland to finance the global Fund for Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The lead funding agency for Aids faces a $500m (€390m) shortfall this year – despite a recent pledge of $500m (€390m) from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation – and another $1.4bn (€1bn) next year.

“We are on the cusp of a huge financial crisis,” Lewis warned. “No one is asking for any more than was promised. Everything in the battle against Aids is being jeopardised by the G8.”