Put focus back on Aids: FW de Klerk foundation

Even though the situation with HIV/Aids has improved, the world still needed to draw its attention back to the realities of the disease, the FW De Klerk Foundation said on Sunday, the eve of World Aids Day.

"During each week and every week since March this year -- an average of 3 300 people have died of AIDS in South Africa," said executive director of the FW de Klerk Foundation, Dave Steward.

Yet, he said: "There are no longer any news stories about AIDS. The media does not cover the thousands of funerals that take place every week."

Nevertheless he said each death was a "tragedy" to the families of those who died -- especially children who were orphaned through the disease.

On Sunday, KwaZulu-Natal health MEC Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo and KwaZulu-Natal health head of department Dr Sibongile Zungu also issued a statement in which they said "significant strides" had been made in the province.

"Notwithstanding the province's high HIV prevalence, which is at 37,4 percent; the Department has managed to reduce mother to child HIV transmission from 19 percent in 2007 to 1,6 percent currently".

They said that HIV was still largely caused by actions such as having multiple concurrent sexual partners, sexual assault and "economical inequalities which lead to intergenerational sex ([the] sugar daddy syndrome), among others."

Meanwhile, the National Union of Mineworkers said that mineworkers remained "particularly vulnerable" to contracting the disease.

"They live in an environment where veneral diseases (VD) and tuberculosis...are not only firmly established but are spreading," said union spokesman Livhuwani Mammburu.

"The combination of those diseases with HIV constituted the greatest threat to their health."

World Aids Day is commemorated across the globe every December 1 in a bid to highlight awareness of the disease, show support for those living with it and remember those who have died from the illness.