Popular responses to HIV/AIDS and policy

Journal of Southern African Studies

Volumn 31, Issue 4, 2005, Pages 845-856

  Leclerc Madlala, Suzanne ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF KWAZULU NATAL   (South Africa)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ACQUIRED IMMUNE DEFICIENCY SYNDROME; HEALTH POLICY; HUMAN IMMUNODEFICIENCY VIRUS; PUBLIC ATTITUDE;

AFRICA; SOUTH AFRICA; SOUTHERN AFRICA; SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA;

EID: 31844431857     PISSN: 03057070     EISSN: 14653893     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/03057070500370761     Document Type: Article

References (53)

1. For discussion on AIDS policy in those countries see South African Journal of International Affairs, 7, 2 (2000)
2. articles by M. Scheffer, 'The AIDS Epidemic in Brazil', pp. 81-8
3. J. Rwomushana, 'AIDS in Uganda', pp. 67-72
4. T. Renaud, 'AIDS in Thailand and South East Asia', pp. 73-80
5. A description of the 'inter-sectoral response' can be found in HIV/AIDS & STD Strategic Plan 2000-2005 (Department of Health, Pretoria, 2000).
6. Dr Manto Tshabala-Msimange expressed these views in her official address as Minister of Health on World AIDS Day, 1 December 2002. Available at www.doh.gov.za/ediaroom/index.html (last accessed on 04 June 2003).
7. See A. Whiteside and C. Sunter, AIDS: The Challenge for South Africa (Cape Town, Human and Rousseau, 2000).
8. For a discussion on the health challenges that faced the new democratic government,see H. Schneider and J. Stein, 'Implementing AIDS Policy in Post-apartheid South Africa', Social Science and Medicine, 52 (2001), pp. 122-31.
9. The Mail & Guardian, a national weekly, carried several stories on these dubious initiatives including 'So Who Did Pay for the AIDS Play?', 8 March 1996
10. 'Virodene May Activate AIDS Virus', 20 March 1998
11. and 'More Human Guinea Pigs for Virodene', 19 March 1999.
12. M. Mbali, 'HIV/AIDS Policy Making in Post-Apartheid South Africa', in J. Daniel, A. Habib and R. Southall (eds), The State of The Nation 2003-2004, Volume 1 (Cape Town, Human Sciences Research Council Press, 2003), pp. 125-36.
13. 'HIV/AIDS in Africa', UNAIDS Briefing Document (Geneva, United Nations Printing Press, 2000).
14. Allegedly written and posted on the ANC website by party stalwart Peter Mokaba, this document entitled 'Caravans, Cats, Geese, Foot & Mouth and Statistics: HIV/AIDS and the Struggle for the Humanisation of the African', offered a lengthy exposition of the dissident position. Amongst other things it refuted the idea that millions of people were infected by HIV and claimed that AIDS drugs and pharmaceutical companies were destroying the immune systems of Africans and killing them through experimental drug trials.
15. See, for example, R. Dorrington and L. Johnson, 'Impacts Epidemiological and Demographical', in J. Gow and C. Desmond (eds), Impacts and Interventions: The HIV/AIDS Epidemic and the Children of South Africa (Pietermaritzburg, University of Natal Press, 2002).
16. For discussion on the problems of accessing social grants see J. Streak, 'Mitigating the Impacts with a Focus on Government Responses', in Gows and Desmond, Impacts and Interventions.
17. For an analysis of the implications of the 2005 National Budget for AIDS orphans see J. Streak and S. Cassiem, 'Please Sir, Can We Have Some More?', ChildrenFIRST, 9, 60 (February 2005), pp. 32-3.
18. Demand for anti-retroviral drugs to reduce mother-to-child transmission of HIV resulted in a 2001 Constitutional Court ruling for government provision. Of all the available anti-retrovirals, the drug Nevirapine, given to HIV + pregnant women in a once-off dosage shortly before giving birth, has been shown to reduce the likelihood of mother-to-child transmission of HIV by about 30 per cent.
19. The Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimange expressed these concerns at a February 2005 parliamentary media briefing where she was asked to give information on the number of people currently receiving antiretroviral treatment. In addition to making the stated points she avoided answering the question by saying 'I never like to talk figures'.
20. President Mbeki clearly articulated his support for dissident views on AIDS when he delivered the Keynote Speech at the 13th International AIDS Conference, Durban, 10 September 2000.
21. For a description of TAC strategies see S. Robbins, 'Reclaiming Bodies, Extending Citizenship: Health Activism in a Time of AIDS' (paper presented at the Association of Anthropology in Southern Africa Conference, Cape Town, University of Cape Town, 26 August 2003).
22. This news featured prominently in the South African media. See 'There is No Pledge on AIDS, Insists Mbeki', The Star, 17 February 2003.
23. 'Shambles at AIDS Baby Treatment Sites', Mail & Guardian, 27 June 2003.
24. These figures, gathered by the AIDS Law Project were reported in an article entitled 'Death Soars as AIDS Drug Roll-out Falters', Sunday Independent, 20 February 2005.
25. See 'Free State Fumbles', Mail & Guardian, 8 April 2005.
26. 'Vitriolic Dr Rath Attacks TAC', Mail & Guardian, 18 March 2005.
27. For discussion on the 'feed-back' effects of modern diseases on society see P. Farmer, Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1999).
28. For academic analysis of virginity testing practices in KwaZulu-Natal see: S. Leclerc-Madlala, 'Virginity Testing: Managing Sexuality in a Maturing HIV/AIDS Epidemic', Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 15, 4 (2001), pp. 533-52
29. F. Scorgie, 'Virginity Testing and the Politics of Sexual Responsibility: Implications for AIDS Interventions', African Studies, 61, 1 (2001). See also the conference report of the 'Gender Commission Consultative Conference on Virginity Testing' (Durban, Commission on Gender Equality, 2000).
30. For reflections on recent trends in chastity protection in the region see S. Leclerc-Madlala, 'Protecting Girlhood? Virginity Revivals in the Era of AIDS', Agenda, 56 (2003), pp. 16-25.
31. Some researchers have recently challenged what they see as an over-emphasis on condom usage in preventing the spread of HIV in Africa. They advocate greater emphasis on abstinence and mutual faithfulness between partners. See, for example, E. Green, Rethinking AIDS Prevention (Westport, Praeger Press, 2003).
32. Also see 'UN Report Adds to a Condom Debate', Boston Globe, 22 June 2003.
33. These ideas were expressed by Pastor Vusi Dube who gave the opening address at the launch of the 'Abstinence Walk Challenge', Durban Christian Centre, Durban, 9 June 2002.
34. Zuma was speaking at the Mpondomise Heritage Celebrations held in the Tsolo region of the former Transkei, in September 2004, where the mayor presented 40 girls who were taking part in the municipality's virginity-testing programme. Available at www.news24.com/News24/South (date accessed 12 April 2005).
35. One of the more popular fidelity-protection 'medicines' in the Durban area currently goes by the name 'the amoeba', or inoni in isiZulu. See S. Leclerc-Madlala, 'Of Men and Maggots: Metaphors of a Decaying Social Body' (paper presented at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research-École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (University of Paris) Symposium on 'Life and Death in the Time of AIDS', University of the Witwatersrand, 14-16 October 2004).
36. In 2002 the local feminist journal Agenda (53) produced a special issue focusing on changing attitudes and norms of gender in the context of HIV/ AIDS. See here A. Harrison, 'The Social Dynamics of Adolescent Risk for HIV: Using Research to Design a School-based Intervention', pp. 43-53
37. M. Thorpe, 'Masculinity in an HIV Intervention', pp. 61-8
38. S. Walsh, C. Mitchell and A. Smith, 'The Soft Cover Project: Youth Participation in AIDS Interventions', pp. 106-12.
39. Having publicly acknowledged that two of his children died of AIDS, Buthelezi declared his support for compulsory pre-nuptial HIV testing while speaking at a Cape Town Press Club luncheon on 9 February, 2005. Buthelezi has been one of the most outspoken politicians on issues of rape and HIV/AIDS and is critical of government's handling of the AIDS crisis.
40. Since 2000 the media has been featuring stories about the growing shortage of land for burials due to the rising rates of death. For example see 'Alexandra People See AIDS Filling Cemetery', Business Day, 11 October 2000
41. 'Not In Our Backyard', Daily News, 4 June 2003.
42. 'Community Awareness Campaign: Cemeteries and Crematoria', Official Campaign Document (Durban, Department of Parks, Recreation and Culture, 2002).
43. Interview with Royal Ntombela, Durban, 19 February 2005.
44. See' Mortality and Causes of Death in South Africa', in Statistical Report and Five-Year Trends 1997-2002 (Pretoria, Stats SA, March 2004).
45. Various 'adaptation's of what is locally referred to as the 'death industry' have been highlighted by the popular press in articles such as 'Battle Over Bodies', Daily News, 27 April 2000,
46. and '30,000 AIDS Corpses Pose a Contamination Risk', Daily News, 10 February 2003.
47. For an in-depth discussion on state response to AIDS in Botswana and the epidemiological course of the disease see I. Taylor, 'The HIV/AIDS Pandemic in Botswana: Implications for the "African Miracle"', in N. Poku and A. Whiteside (eds), The Political Economy of AIDS in Africa (Aldershot, Ashgate, 2004), pp. 151-63.
48. E. Serpa, 'AIDS in Africa: The Sociocultural Roots of a Disease', Africa Insight, 32, 3 (2002), pp. 43-50.
49. See studies by L. Treger, 'Rape and HIV Myths: Community Perceptions, Beliefs and Practices', Women's Health Project Review, 43, 21 (2002), pp. 8-10
50. S. Leclerc-Madlala, 'On the Virgin Cleansing Myth: Gendered Bodies, AIDS and Ethnomedicine', African Journal of AIDS Research, 1, 2 (2002), pp. 87-95
51. C. Edwards, 'Intersection of HIV/AIDS and Violence Against Women & Girls' (paper presented at Medical Research Council-HIV/AIDS Networking Forum, Durban, 31 March, 2005).
52. See R. Matzopoulos (ed.), 'Fatal Injuries in South Africa', Fifth Annual Report 2003 (Cape Town, Medical Research Council, 2004).
53. D. Mkhize, 'Youth Health Risk Exposure', Preliminary Study Report (Durban, Nelson Mandela School of Medicine, May 2003).