History Matters Blog :

Timeline: HIV/Aids in South Africa 2001-2005

2001 
Indian drugs company Cipla vows to make cheap generics of Aids medications, putting pressure on multinationals to cut prices further.

HIV/Aids protest in Pretoria, 2001.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan calls for an Aids "war chest" of between seven to 10 billion dollars per year, compared to the one billion currently being spent.

Aids becomes leading cause of death in sub-Saharan Africa.
13 March, Mr. Tony Leon, Leader of the Democratic Alliance, speculates on the declaration of an AIDS-related national emergency from the Department of Health and the Presidency. 
18 March, The Department of Health declines the offer of a large donation of HIV test kits made by Guardian Scientific Africa Incorporated.
28 March, Dr Molefi Sefularo, MEC for Health in the North West province claims that North West province shows a decrease in HIV infection.
11 April, Pfizer Inc. agrees to supply AIDS patients attending public hospitals with an unlimited two-year supply of fluconozale.

Source: myhero.comWorld renowned aids activist, Nkosi Johnson

June, World renowned aids activist, Nkosi Johnson (right), born 4 February 1989 dies.

4 July, South Africa comments on United Nation's session on HIV by declaring highlights of poverty, underdevelopment and illiteracy as main contributing factors to the spread of HIV/AIDS. 
August, AIDS activists took legal action against the South African health ministry over its continuing refusal to supply antiretrovirals to prevent mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of HIV.120 In December, it was ruled that the South African government should give pregnant women free access to the drug nevirapine. The judge ordered the government to set up a nationwide MTCT programme with a deadline for an implementation report to be handed back to the court by March 2002.
September, A national HIV and Syphilis sero-prevalence survey is made in South Africa. The survey reports that care and support will sustain the momentum in prevention activities. The objective of the survey is to estimate the HIV prevalence in South Africa in 2001 and current trends in HIV prevalence from 1990 and 2001 among pregnant women. 
October, Mr. Trevor Manuel announces in his Medium Term Budget Review that HIV/AIDS funding would be increased through funding for the dedicated national AIDS programmes (communication, research & condoms)
9 October, Partnership Against AIDS 3rd anniversary is celebrated by communities at New Brighton, Port Elizabeth (President Thabo Mbeki launches)
11 October, Statistics SA leads the Interdepartmental Task Team on Mortality to give effect to a Cabinet decision to prioritize work on the collection of HIV/AIDS related mortality data.

16 October, The South African Medical Research Council releases a report on AIDS-related mortality in adults. 
19 October, The Presidential AIDS Advisory Panel, which conducted the bulk of its work in 2000, identifies a number of potential areas for research and the first one is the study of HIV testing.  
21 November, The South African Government unveils World AIDS Day 2001 campaign, “I care enough to act, do you?” which is derived from the international theme “I care, do you?” 
28 November, The South African Government and the South African Broadcasting Centre have a newly strengthened partnership in recognition of the socio-economic impact of HIV/AIDS in South Africa. 
2002
HIV/Aids is the leading cause of death worldwide among those 15-59.
The Global Fund is established to boost the response to AIDS, TB and malaria.
Botswana became the first African country to begin providing antiretroviral treatment through the public sector.
The WHO published guidelines for providing antiretroviral drugs for treating HIV infection in resource poor countries. They also released a list of 12 essential AIDS drugs. These two moves were seen as "vital steps in the battle against the AIDS pandemic [that] should encourage both industrialised and developing country governments to make HIV treatment more widely available."

31 January, Dr Eric Goemaere of Medicine Sans Frontieres claims that Khayelitsha was setting a good example for effective antiretroviral therapy with a pilot programme that started in May 2001.
February, 18 National Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) pilot sites are implemented to help improve the effectiveness and efficiency of PMTCT services and to inform any planned expansion of the programme.
22 February, Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and Gauteng premier Mr. Mbazima Shilowa meet to clarify recent public pronouncements around the issue of HIV/AIDS and the programme against mother-to-child transmission.

March, The Traditional leaders AIDS programme, joining traditional leaders and other sectors, is launched.
17 March, The date (2 May) is set for the National Constitutional Court to address the South African government's appeal against a High Court order that the public health sector provide the anti-retroviral drug Nevirapine, to reduce mother-to-child transmission on HIV.
27 March, National Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang approaches the National Constitutional court on the ordering of the anti-retroviral drug nevirapine to the South Africans who need it. 
April, A programme is launched to form a partnership with organizations operating in high-risk environments, such as taverns, bars and shebeens.
17 April, The South African National Government Cabinet receives a comprehensive briefing on the implementation of government policy on HIV/AIDS. The meeting reiterates government's commitment to the HIV/AIDS and STI strategic plan for South Africa. 
19 April, Health workers will continue to get HIV/AIDS anti-retroviral drugs for needle stick injuries, despite a decision by the ANC's National Executive Committee that this practice should stop.

May, An awareness campaign is launched with commuters and drivers in trains, taxis and buses on HIV/AIDS-related issues.
20 May, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang announces at a meeting of the World Health Assembly in Geneva that South Africa pledges R20 million to the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. 
28 June, Cosatu and the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) are to table a national HIV/AIDS treatment plan in the National Economic, Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) following the first national treatment conference, which concluded in Durban.
10 July, Based on existing resources, South Africa can ‘easily afford’ to provide HIV/AIDS anti-retroviral therapy to between 60 000 and 70 000 people in the next five years. This is the conclusion from a study by Dr Chris Kenyon of the Health Systems Trust and Dr Andrew Boulle, a registrar in the School of Public Health at the University of Cape Town, presented at the 14th World Conference on AIDS in Barcelona.
An international group of AIDS specialists finalize the setting up of a clinic in Sharpeville that will offer services such as the prevention of mother-to-child transmission, treatment of opportunistic infections and anti-retroviral therapy.
15 July, Former president Nelson Mandela calls on government and business leaders worldwide to find ways to provide access to treatment to those who need it, for all people living with HIV/AIDS.
30 July, Instead of waiting for resources from national government on how to deal with HIV/AIDS, McCord Hospital in Durban implements its own fund-raising plans, driven by people living with the disease.
8 August, The South African National Government Cabinet announces the go-ahead for an HIV/AIDS anti-retroviral roll-out plan.
9 August, South African women continue to make strides in their attempts to find HIV/AIDS health care solutions in needy communities. Two women doctors from two South African provinces win the 2002 Shoprite Checkers/SABC2 Woman of the Year Awards for their dedication to the communities they serve.
12 August, South Africa added three signatures to the document authorizing the Global Fund to release a multi-million Rand grant to combat AIDS, TB and Malaria. The recipients are the Enhanced Care Initiative in KwaZulu-Natal, LoveLife and Soul City.
25 August, The Medicines Control Council (MCC) threatens to de-register the HIV/AIDS anti-retroviral Nevirapine unless further studies and appropriate documentation can show its efficacy in the prevention of mother to child transmisssion of HIV. Dr. Glenda Grey of the Peri-Natal HIV Research Unit at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital argues that enough evidence has already been presented.
9 September, Dr Khwezi Matoti who runs the AIDS clinic at the Gugulethu Day Hospital publicly explains when antiretroviral drugs become necessary.
15 September, An antenatal survey is conducted by the Department of Health the first since 1990. An internationally recognized tool for estimating the magnitude, growth and spread of the HIV epidemic over time, the latest South African survey reveals that 5,3 million people in this country are living with HIV or AIDS.
9 October, On the 4th anniversary of the Partnership Against AIDS, a campaign initiated by the Cabinet, an appeal is made to all to build on the progress that has been made in the fight the epidemic.

10 October, SA President Thabo Mbeki is publicly opposed to the provision of AIDS drugs in South Africa, rguing that they are dangerously toxic and still questioning whether HIV or poverty is the true cause of AIDS. Click here to see a ‘letter from the president’ on health and poverty (April 2002) Jonas please put a picture of Thabo Mbeki in here
25 October, During a period of great controversy over HIV/AIDS treatment in South Africa, health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang attends the 2nd National Health Providers' Prayer Day, which is intended to take care of the ‘inner person and uplift the soul’.
21 November, The South African Government issues a statement on mortality statistics, taking the five leading underlying causes of death among South Africans as HIV, TB, Influenza, Unnatural causes, and Ill-defined causes. 
5 December, The results of the survey by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) and Nelson Mandela Foundation give cause for hope as well as reason to intensify action to combat HIV/AIDS through implementation of a comprehensive programme.
2003 
US President George Bush unveils plans to spend 15 billion dollars over five years to combat Aids in Africa and Caribbean.
First HIV vaccine to undergo a full trial proves to be a flop.
New WHO Director General Lee Jong-Wook names Aids his top priority, calls for three million poor people to get access to antiretrovirals by end of 2005.
Cost of antiretrovirals falls, helped by World Trade Organisation (WTO) deal allowing poor, vulnerable countries to import generics. SA Government announces a new ARV treatment programme.
HIV transmission through injecting drug use was said to have been almost eliminated in France, Germany and the UK, and significantly reduced in Spain and Italy.
Vatican cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo stated that condoms were not safe and did not protect against the transmission of HIV. In response the WHO said that it was "totally wrong" to claim that condoms did not protect against HIV.
January, Reports suggested that the rate of HIV in Swaziland was the world's highest with almost four out of ten adults infected. Prime Minister Sibusiso Dlamini said that prevalence had risen to 38.6% from 34.2% in January 2002. Although this figure was just under Botswana's rate of 38.8%, health officials said that Swaziland's figures were already out of date.
21 January, Health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and the SADC Health Sectoral Committee meet and discuss the nutrition management of debilitating diseases including HIV/AIDS.

26 February, The cost of a state supported HIV/AIDS anti-retroviral programme in its most expensive year could be below R10-billion and still be highly effective, according to calculations by the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and researchers at the University of Cape Town (UCT).
27 February, It is announced in the National budget documents that investigations into the introduction of a national anti-retroviral programme for South Africans living with HIV/AIDS are far advanced and recommendations are close to finalization.
March, Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) filed manslaughter charges against the health minister and the trade and industry minister in South Africa. The TAC held the ministers responsible for the deaths of 600 people a day whose lives could have been saved if they had had access to antiretroviral drugs.
20 March, Universal access to Highly Active Anti-retroviral Therapy (HAART) will become an inevitable reality in South Africa over the next three to seven years, according the South African Health Review.
10 April, Health activists address the R13-million shortfall faced by the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. By launching the “Fund the Fund” campaign they aim to pressure wealthy nations to contribute urgently needed funds.
13 May, The Minister of Health presents her budget speech to the National Assembly outlining that free health care will be extended to people with disabilities.
19 June, The South African AIDS Vaccine Initiative (SAAVI) announces that the South African Medicine Control Council had approved the first human clinical trial for a Phase I HIV vaccine trial in Durban and Soweto, South Africa. 
24 June, Government's budget of R92 million for Khomanani, the government's HIV/AIDS communication campaign, is due to end in three months. The announcement is met with queries over whether the money was well spent.
4 August, Protesters with placards reading "Save Our Youth, Save Our Future, Treat AIDS Now" jeer and heckle Health minister Dr. Manto Tshabalala-Msimang at a national AIDS conference in Durban, to protest the government's response to the disease, which, it is estimated, kills 600 South Africans a day. 
8 August, A South African cabinet meeting decides to roll out a national treatment plan for HIV/AIDS sufferers.
12 August, Two long accepted facts across the globe: that HIV causes AIDS, and that anti-retroviral drugs can retard the progress of the disease, are for the record, at last acceded to by the South African government. 
September, ‘Personally, I don't know anybody who has died of AIDS', President Thabo Mbeki tells The Washington Post. Click here to read more...
25 September, Treatment Helpline Direct stated that a person with the Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV) could live healthily for a number of years. Anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs are needed only at a certain stage of the disease, when a person's immune system becomes too weak to resist infection. Blood tests to measure the strength of a patient's immune system (CD4 count) and the amount of HIV in their body (viral load) need to be done before taking ARV drugs.
26 September, Two South Africans are appointed to a high-profile Commission on HIV/AIDS and Governance in Africa (CHGA). The University of Natal's Professor Alan Whiteside and World Bank managing official Dr Mamphele Ramphela are members of the 20-person commission, chaired by Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa K. Amoako, and established at the behest of United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan. The Commission's mandate is to study the impact of HIV/AIDS on African state structures and economic development and to identify threats to governance. It will report back in June 2005.
3 October, Justice Edwin Cameron says ‘a miracle happened and I want that miracle to be available to other people where they can be given their lives back'. He advocates rolling out of ARVs to HIV/AIDS sufferers.
6 October, The HIV/AIDS activism organization Treatment Action Campaign, is awarded the prestigious Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights.
7 October, At least one-fifth of South Africa's military is infected with the virus that causes AIDS, and Defense Minister Mosiuoa Lekota states that ‘the South African National Defense Force is no longer accepting HIV positive people into their ranks'.
Treatment Action Campaign chairperson Zackie Achmat starts antiretroviral therapy but lives with the guilt of having access to the life-prolonging drugs while fellow South Africans wait for the roll-out of ARVs in the public health sector.
8 October, According to the Washington Post, South Africa is one of the countries most affected by HIV and AIDS. About 4.7 million people (±11 % of the population) are infected with the virus. Between 600 and 1,000 die each day from the disease and related complications.
15 October, A young Pretoria couple start legal action against 1 Military Hospital for at least R800 000 for trauma and shock, when a doctor admitted a mistake after telling her she was HIV positive. 
19 October, The South African Competitions Commission finds two giant pharmaceutical companies, GlaxoSmithKline South Africa and BoChringer-Ingelheim guilty of abusing their documented prices for their anti-retroviral drugs. 
November, South Africa approved the long-awaited provision of free antiretroviral drugs in public hospitals.
1 December, World Aids Day. Statistics at the time: more than 50 million people living with HIV/Aids globally, 60% of these are in Sub-Saharan Africa. Estimates conclude that about 28.1 million deaths worldwide have occurred, with 5 more people dying every minute. On World AIDS Day the WHO announced a new plan called '3 by 5' to provide HIV/AIDS treatment for many resource-poor countries. The plan had many different elements, but the WHO were not planning to provide the drugs themselves. The WHO was hoping to have 3 million people in resource poor countries on AIDS drugs by the end of 2005.
2004
G8 summit calls for a Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise that will beef up coordination and exchanges of information among the world's vaccine scientists.
The Global Fund to Fight Aids, TB and Malaria holds the first ever “partnership forum” in Bangkok, Thailand. 400 delegates from around the world take part.
UNAids launches the global coalition on Women and Aids to raise the visibility of the epidemic’s impact on women and girls around the world.
South Africa begins the programme to give out free HIV/AIDS drugs after years of confusion and delays. The program starts in Gauteng, where five major hospitals, including Chris Hani Baragwanath, the largest in Africa, were selected to administer the drugs.
A study found that the HIV prevalence rate in Uganda had been reduced by 70% since the early 1990s. It was estimated that half a million Ugandans were HIV positive in 2004, compared with 1.5 million a decade before. It was believed that the reduction in HIV prevalence was due to people having fewer sexual partners as well as to effective prevention efforts in local communities.
President Bush's $15 billion initiative to combat the global AIDS pandemic, by now known as PEPFAR (President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief), began full implementation in June, having received its first funding in January.
March, US Food and Drug Administration approved the first oral fluid rapid HIV test
2005
Big scale up in antiretroviral access in poor countries, although result is set to fall far short of WHO's ‘3 by 5’ goal.
In the UK at least, 2005 had been hailed as the ‘Year of Africa’ - the year in which real progress would be made towards relieving poverty and disease in that continent. The UK held the presidency of the European Union for the second half of the year, and in July the UK hosted the G8 (Group of Eight) summit of world leaders in Gleneagles, Scotland. At the summit the leaders promised to double aid to Africa by 2010, and to cancel the debts of 18 poor countries, but no progress was made in improving trade justice, which many groups considered to be the most important issue. However, the leaders were praised for pledging to ensure as near as possible to universal access to antiretroviral treatment worldwide by 2010.
UNAIDS and WHO, in their annual estimate, say Aids killed 3.1 million people in 2005 and some five million people became infected.
The total living with HIV or Aids stands at a record of 40.3 million.
Nelson Mandela announced that his eldest son Makgatho had died of AIDS, aged 54.
Publication of death certificate data from South Africa reveals that the total number of reported deaths had increased by 57% between 1997 and 2002. Among those aged 25-49 years, the rise was 116% in the same six year period. Based on an analysis of a sample of death certificates, the South African Medical Research Council estimats that nearly two-thirds of deaths related to HIV had been misclassified (wrongly attributed to other causes) during 2000-2001.
Skepticism about the cause of AIDS is still thriving in South Africa. The Democratic Alliance gives a list of the country's twelve most influential "AIDS dissidents" (people who question the theory that HIV causes AIDS), whom it said had an "ongoing and bizarrely powerful" influence on national HIV/AIDS policy. The list is headed by attorney Anthony Brink, the convener and national chairperson of the Treatment Information Group and spokesperson for the Dr Rath Health Foundation, an organisation dedicated to promoting the use of vitamin supplements rather than antiretrovirals to treat AIDS. Also featured are President Thabo Mbeki and Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang.
Zimbabwe, one of the countries worst affected by AIDS, was suffering from a severe economic crisis made worse by droughts and the government's controversial land redistribution programme. One consequence was a sharp rise in the price of AIDS drugs in the public sector.
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