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13th
January, 2005
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PICTURE:
Lisa Young (iStockphoto.com)
"Such
public acknowledgement of the AIDS problem represents
a real breakthrough for South Africa where more than
five million people are ill or dying from the virus,
and where the majority of AIDS deaths are disclosed
as 'cause of death unknown'...Quietly we all know
that when the cause of death is 'unknown' it is most
likely because of AIDS."
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TANYA
BENNETTS
Former South
African President Nelson Mandela this week attended his last
surviving son’s memorial and made a stand by telling
the world that his 54-year-old son, Makgatho Mandela, died
of AIDS.
Such public acknowledgement of the AIDS problem represents
a real breakthrough for South Africa where more than five
million people are ill or dying from the virus, and where
the majority of AIDS deaths are disclosed as “cause
of death unknown”.
The fact that many HIV deaths are kept quiet or never admitted
to is of great concern in a country that tops the list of
nations hardest hit by HIV/AIDS; a country where - according
to Statistics South Africa - 15.2 per cent of population suffered
from the disease in 2004.
Quietly we all know that when the cause of death is “unknown”
it is most likely because of AIDS.
There is a significant stigma associated with AIDS in South
Africa - largely because it is a sexually transmitted disease
and because many uneducated South Africans believe that nothing
can be done to prevent the illness and death from the virus.
Even President Thabo Mbeki has claimed that HIV does not cause
AIDS and that HIV/AIDS is a racial issue.
That being said, Mandela’s public disclosure of his
son’s death has been praised by the Treatment Action
Campaign (TAC), an HIV/AIDS lobby group in South Africa initially
set up to help ordinary people gain access to cheaper anti-retroviral
medicines.
"Let us give publicity to HIV/AIDS and not hide it, because
the only way to make it appear like a normal illness like
TB, like cancer, is always to come out and to say somebody
has died because of HIV/AIDS. And people will stop regarding
it as something extraordinary," Mandela shared on the
day of his son’s memorial.
The TAC hope Mandela’s announcement regarding his son’s
death will encourage more people to be counselled, tested
for HIV and, when necessary, treated.
Since leaving office, the former president has helped in a
number of ways to fight for the AIDS cause including raising
money and supporting the TAC.
He has raised money for AIDS causes and has supported activist
groups such as the Treatment Action Campaign, which was founded
to help ordinary people gain access to cheaper anti-retroviral
medicines.
One can only hope his words are heeded.
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