Issued by Department of Health
30 May 2009
The Minister of Health Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang will address the United Nations General Special Assembly on HIV and AIDS (UNGASS) on its opening day in New York tomorrow. She will focus on re-intensifying prevention and translating knowledge to behaviour change.
The meeting (taking place from 31 May-02 June) will review and recommit to implementation of the Declaration of Commitment on HIV and AIDS adopted by the UNGASS in 2001, evaluate challenges and obstacles, and reassess what needs to be done in order to effectively combat the pandemic.
The Minister considers this meeting as critical and believes that it is going to significantly influence the nature and form of the global response to the challenge of HIV and AIDS over the next years up to 2010 and beyond.
She will approach this meeting in its global context and with an understanding of the global health agenda, as she believes that the meeting relates to us as a developing nation and an African country.
The Minister will address the meeting with an understanding of the factors that make us in Africa to be more vulnerable to the spread of HIV infection and the impact of AIDS compared to developed regions, and she will also keep in mind the global factors that hamper our efforts to break the cycle of poverty and underdevelopment in Africa.
She believes that the global nature of the challenges before us as a country requires that we act in unity for our response to achieve maximum impact, and that in a global environment that is dominated by various forms of inequality and injustices against the poor, the unity of all those who stand for health and social justice is paramount especially at such important international forums as the UNGASS.
The Minister and the SA Delegation will also participate in a range of other activities including round table discussions. The Minister will participate in a panel discussion on sustainable and predictable financing for scaled-up AIDS response.
The delegation will focus on: (a) poverty, status of women in society etc; (b) challenges presented with vertical interventions when the health system as a whole is weak; (c) importance of prevention and the need to use various strategies and not be limited to a medical model approach which focusses on ARVs only; (d) importance of food security as well as nutritional supplementation; (e) the importance for countries to determine their own strategies linked to their own peculiarities.
The Minister and the delegation will do their best to represent the interest of the country, the continent and the rest of the developing nations.
Enquiries: Charity Bhengu