What a pleasant change from the previous policy of pretending as though there isn't a problem. I would be the last person to argue against using foods to help address health issues but there is no replacement for a serious medical approach to a serious health problem. To deny medical treatment in such an environment, especially since funding was not the issue as it is elsewhere, is irresponsible and dangerous. During my own travels across South Africa and the region, I was shocked at toll AIDS has taken. It's one thing to read about it but quite another to see fresh graves in every town and village. How the previous minister could sleep at night always escaped me.
South Africa’s new health minister asked scientists on Monday to intensify their efforts to find an AIDS vaccine amid widespread gloom overrecent research setbacks.
Health Minister Barbara Hogan said government policies over the past 10 years had failed. Her speech Monday marked a radical break in policy from her predecessor Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, who had downplayed the seriousness of the epidemic, mistrusted anti-AIDS medicines and instead advocated garlic and beetroot as a remedy.
Hogan told an international AIDS vaccine conference that countries such as South Africa — where life expectancy has fallen to 52 years — desperately need scientists to come up with a weapon against HIV.
