South Africa gets AIDS plan as 1,500 infected daily

By Andrew Quinn

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa launched a revamped national AIDS plan on Wednesday as new research showed the high cost of government inaction on the epidemic -- 1,500 South Africans infected with HIV every day.

South Africa's National Strategic Plan, submitted for approval at a conference, aims to cut new HIV infections by 50 percent and bring treatment and support to at least 80 percent of HIV-positive people by 2011.

Health analysts hope South Africa is undergoing a basic shift in its official approach to a disease that already infects about 5.5 million of the country's 47 million people and kills an estimated 1,000 South Africans every day.

"The indications are there has been a genuine change of heart at the highest level," the influential Business Day newspaper said in an editorial on Wednesday.

President Thabo Mbeki's government has long been accused by activists of underplaying the threat of the epidemic, soliciting views of "AIDS denialist" scientists and questioning the efficacy and safety of anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs.

While public pressure forced South Africa to launch one of the world's largest public ARV programmes -- with more than 200,000 people already enrolled and up to a million seen getting the drugs by 2011 -- many political observers have continued to question government commitment to fighting the disease.

Much of the hope around South Africa's new AIDS strategy has been fuelled by the sidelining of combative Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang -- now on sick leave -- and the naming of Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka as the country's top official on HIV policy.

AIDS activists have praised Mlambo-Ngcuka for her willingness to take a fresh approach to battling the epidemic.