Funding plight won’t derail HIV, TB battle - Motsoaledi
Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has rejected claims that the withdrawal of US funding from PEPFAR will derail South Africa’s fight against HIV and TB.
"Under no circumstances will we allow this massive work, performed over a period of more than a decade and a half, to collapse and go up in smoke, because President Trump has decided to do what he has done.
"If we do so, we'll have thrown away a massive investment in time, money, and human resources. And at any rate, we don't want to go back to the period where death was the order of the day."
He says patients previously supported under PEPFAR have been absorbed into public clinics, and treatment continues without disruption.
Motsoaledi said, despite narratives in the HIV/AIDS circle that the campaign is collapsing, the real fight against the disease is happening in clinics, not in boardrooms or headlines.
The minister briefed the media on the country's progress in mitigating the impact of the US government's funding withdrawal earlier this year.
" We wish to confirm today that the fight against HIV and AIDS and TB is in our villages, in our communities and townships, and even on the streets of our country, and that is where our focus is, has been and as it should be,” he said.
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