Reflecting on Aids this World Aids Day, it's apparent that South Africa is still experiencing one of the most severe Aids epidemics in the world, which has now been largely blamed on government's inaction in the past, with its 'denialist' HIV/Aids policy being enforced by Thabo Mbeki and his entourage over the years.

The scale of South Africa's Aids crisis is far reaching, with some 5.5-million of South Africa's 47-million population infected with HIV — which is over 18 percent of the adult population, and which means that almost one in five adults are infected with HIV.

According to Avert — an international Aids charity — almost half of all deaths in South Africa, and a staggering 71 percent of deaths among those aged between 15 and 49, are caused by Aids.

According to the World Health Organisation, 33-million people around the world are infected with the Aids virus, mostly in sub-Sahara Africa.

Put on the backburner

A new study by Harvard researchers estimates that the South African government would have prevented the premature deaths of 365 000 people earlier this decade if it had provided antiretroviral drugs to Aids patients and widely administered drugs to help prevent pregnant women from infecting their babies, reports the New York Times.

Thabo Mbeki has been called an 'Aids denialist', and it has been questioned why his colleagues in the party did not act earlier to challenge his resistance to broadly accepted methods of treating and preventing Aids.

Kgalema Motlanthe on the other hand, acted on the first day of his presidency, just two months ago to remove the health minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang — a polarising figure who proposed garlic and beetroot as cures for Aids. And so with her replacement — Barbara Hogan — there's hope for more action in the near future.

ANC president Jacob Zuma said last week that South Africa can beat HIV-Aids in 10 years. He also said that South Africa needs to utilise its knowledge about HIV.

"We know that HIV can be prevented and that treatment works. We know mothers can remain healthy and their babies can be born free of HIV, and we know that infection rates are relatively low for people younger than 19 years old. We know what we should do and should do it. The stigma of Aids should be removed," urged Zuma.

"HIV-Aids should not be a condition we speak about in hushed tones. We must be open and speak about this disease to prevent infections. We must provide treatment and social support. The ruling party cares and will do its best to make a difference."

The impact of Aids

As well as the death and suffering that HIV has caused on an individual and community level, South Africa's Aids epidemic has also had a substantial impact on the country's overall social and economic progress:

According to Avert:

• The average life expectancy in South Africa is now 54 years — without Aids, it's estimated that it would be 64. Over half of 15 year olds are not expected to reach the age of 60.5.
• Between 1990 and 2003 — a period during which HIV prevalence in South Africa increased dramatically — the country fell by 35 places in the Human Development Index, a global directory that ranks countries by how developed they are.
• Hospitals are struggling to cope with the number of HIV-related patients that they have to care for.
• In 2006 a leading researcher estimated that HIV-positive patients would soon account for 60-70 percent of medical expenditure in South African hospitals.
• Schools have fewer teachers because of the Aids epidemic. In 2006 it was estimated that 21 percent of teachers in South Africa were living with HIV.

Preventing mother-to-child transmission

One of the biggest issues on the Aids agenda which the new health ministry is looking at putting into place, is reducing the number of babies being born with HIV, from some 60 000 every year to less than 10 000 in three years.

Health minister Barbara Hogan has said that she's committed to "rapidly scaling up" the national prevention-of-mother-to-child-transmission of HIV programme, which still does not reach 40 percent of pregnant women.

The good news

The good news is that a survey by Johns Hopkins University and the Centre for Aids Development Research and Evaluation, noted that HIV prevention campaigns have saved more than 700 000 South Africans from becoming infected with the killer virus, proving that prevention works.

"The infections averted or delayed in 2005 resulted in huge cost savings and showed that 64.2 percent of sexually active South Africans or 16.7-million people practise some form of HIV prevention behaviour," said the study.