Thabo Mbeki

Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki (born June 18, 1942) is the President of the Republic of South Africa.

AIDS

Mbeki's views on the causes and treatment of AIDS have also been subject to criticism, most notably his defence (April 2000) of a small group of dissident scientists who claim that HIV is not the cause of the disease (See AIDS reappraisal). Though applauded by AIDS activists for its successful legal defence (April 2001) of cheaper locally-produced AIDS drugs against action brought by transnational pharmaceutical companies, his government has been accused of failing to respond adequately to the epidemic, which now affects at least 6.3 million people, the largest infected population of any country in the world. His government was specifically criticized, by groups such as Treatment Action Campaign, for not having a national treatment program for AIDS that including anti-retroviral medicines, the drugs that target AIDS specifically. Patients with HIV could get treated for opportunistic infections they suffered from due to their weakened immune system, but could not get the drugs that would find the virus weakening them.

Related Topics:
AIDS - 2000 - HIV - AIDS reappraisal - 2001 - Treatment Action Campaign - Anti-retroviral medicines

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Mbeki's government finally caved to political pressure and in August 2003 promised to formulate a national treatment plan that would include ARVs, which it did later that year. However, the Health Ministry is still headed by the embattled Dr. Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, who has served as health minister since December 2000, leading critics to question whether the same leadership that refused ARV treatment would effectively carry out the treatment plan. Indeed, implementation has been slow and activists still criticize Mbeki's AIDS policies.

Related Topics:
Manto Tshabalala-Msimang - 2000

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

It is difficult to determine what has led Mbeki to hold some unorthodox views of AIDS and the AIDS crisis. Some speculate that the suspicion engendered by a life in exile and by the colonial domination and control of Africa has led Mbeki to react against the idea of AIDS as another Western characterization of Africans as promiscuous and Africa as a continent of disease and hopelessness. Many Africans find it suspicious that black Africans bear the largest share of the AIDS burden, and that the drugs to treat it are expensive and sold in the main by Western pharmaceutical companies. The history of malicious and manipulative health policies of the colonial and apartheid governments in Africa also contribute to this view.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~