Broken health system, means no end to Aids: TAC
The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) says it will hand over six memorandums on Monday in efforts to address various concerns it has about the fight against HIV/AIDS.
TAC's General Secretary, Anele Yawa, spoke to Newswatch ahead of the start of the week-long 21st International AIDS Conference starting on Monday in Durban.
The conference also coincides with a TAC-led international march of over 5-000 participants to draw the world's attention to many issues the civil society organisation says, are affecting those ravaged by the epidemic.
TAC was formed on 10 December 1998 and Yawa says the aim was to address the scourge of HIV/AIDS in South Africa and to fight victimisation and stigmatisation that was rife against sufferers at the time.
He says although strides have been made since the AIDS denialism days under former President Thabo Mbeki's tenure, areas of concern still remain.
These include the fact that although more than 3,4-million people are on treatment, another 200-000 are defaulting on their on treatment as they come from far-flung areas and are often turned away from health facilities as treatment is not available.
"We are having access to treatment now, but the public health care system is still broken" says Yawa.
The TAC, he says, believes that the shortage of doctors, nurses and home-based care workers operating on the ground, needs to be addressed.
"We are going to this International Aids Conference to say, let us stop the rhetoric about an end to AIDS.
"Only if we fix the broken public health care system will we be able to talk about an end to AIDS" says Yawa.
The TAC will hand over memorandums to Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi, and the Director of United Nations AIDS programme, among others.
(File photo)