Editor’s note

Tuesday, 21 September 2010 13:11

We are winning. That is the impression I get whenever I look at, talk to or interact in any way with the people in my life who have HIV/Aids. A good friend of mine, Simon, was diagnosed a few years ago and the truth is, despite his infection, chances are he will probably outlive me. Access to treatment has meant that Simon’s life has not really changed at all since the reality of his condition became known. All that separates him from anyone else is a daily ritual of swallowing a few pills. This change in how people are living with the disease has somewhat snuck up on us. The reputation of HIV as the killer, the murderer, has ever so slowly been eroded and it is a change that all of us will agree is for the best. To those living with it, both the infected themselves and the close friends and family, HIV/Aids is now no longer something to fear, it is merely something with which you live. The disease, however, is not devoid of complications. Though an outright cure has yet to be found, the issues with HIV/Aids are not so much medical anymore; the problem with HIV/Aids is a social one. And it is not a conclusion to which I have come in isolation, if the recent AIDS 2010 Conference in Vienna is any indication. The overriding theme this year was “Rights here, Right now”. Many of the major talking points at the conference were concerned about access to basic human rights for people living with Aids: access to housing grants, refusal of healthcare due to HIV status, homophobia, sexual and reproduction rights, violence against infected women, growing old with HIV, among others. That is not to say that medical aspects were left out in the cold, quite the contrary; the connection between HIV and tuberculosis was a major focus as well. The point, though, is that we are coming to realise that HIV is more than merely a health issue. The next turning point now in the fight against Aids will be about gaining full social acceptance for those who have to live with the disease. And, as a country with a long history of ensuring the due rights to the downtrodden, I think it is a battle that South Africans are well placed to win. Zaid Kriel Editor