* Consensus statement of TAC/COSATU National HIV/AIDS Congress: Treat the People (The detailed final resolutions agreed to by the Congress will be typed up and released within two weeks.) * Statement by African delegates (from outside of South Africa) at the Congress. The TAC fully endorses this statement and encourages other organisations to do so as well by emailing zuluwin@zamnet.zm. * Short description of key points made by speakers at Congress closing ceremony. Winstone Zulu, from Zambia, who lives with HIV and is a member of the Presidential AIDS Advisory Panel told the Congress how the views of one of his heroes, President Thabo Mbeki, resulted in him becoming a denialist. He stopped taking his antiretroviral medicines for two years. In February this year he became very sick and began taking his medicines again. He is now recovering. ***************** Consensus Statement of National HIV/AIDS Treatment Congress, June 29th 2002 Preamble Between June 27th and 29th 2002, 750 delegates from all over South Africa attended the TAC/COSATU National Treatment Congress. Delegates heard presentations from many of South Africa's leading HIV scientists but also the day-to-day experiences of the epidemic of nurses, doctors and people living with HIV/AIDS. Delegates heard of many of the best practices South Africans are using to combat the epidemic, but there was also a belief that most people with HIV are not receiving adequate treatment, care and support. Furthermore HIV is already having a dramatic and negative impact on the health service. After two days of deliberations the Congress came to the following conclusions. The HIV epidemic has created an emergency in South Africa. This emergency threatens South Africa's future by creating more poverty and impacting negatively on our ability to reconstruct and develop the country to the benefit of all of its people. A national HIV/AIDS Treatment Plan is needed to combat this emergency. A treatment plan will strengthen the Government's existing 5-year strategic plan, which concentrates mainly on prevention. The Congress believes that the following principles must be accepted in dealing with this emergency: 1.A partnership that recognises the value of every HIV infection prevented, and the value of every life that is prolonged and improved through access to treatment. 2.Recognition of the dignity and equality of every person living with HIV/AIDS as the basis to eliminate stigma and discrimination. 3.Every person has the human right of access to health care. 4.There is a need to boldly take advantage of the best scientific knowledge about HIV/AIDS, including treatments for HIV. People in the developed world should not be the only people who benefit from breakthroughs in medical research. 5.That there is a need for investment in public health service including eradication of inequities between provinces, districts and communities. The Congress felt that the HIV crisis and the crisis in the health sector is being made worse by economic policies, notably GEAR, that have taken resources away from health and other public sectors. Also delegates believed strongly that government spending should be driven by the needs of poor people, and not by those of the armed forces, the World Bank or the IMF. Although the Congress aimed to develop a National Treatment Plan for South Africa it was also recognised that HIV/AIDS is a grave threat to all the people of Africa. We valued the participation of delegates, including leaders of people with HIV, from Botswana, Cote d'Ivoire, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Mozambique and Malawi. Delegates resolved to demand that the NEPAD plan include clear measures for the treatment and prevention of HIV and programmes for rapid public-sector driven alleviation of poverty. Later in 2002 TAC and COSATU will organise and host a meeting of people from other African countries to strengthen and unify demands for access to treatment and the improvement of health services. The Congress was alarmed by reports it received of the collapse of health services in many rural areas, particularly Mpumalanga, the Eastern Cape and Northern Province. Doctors, nurses and people with HIV called for a rural health services rescue plan - this would necessitate urgent interventions by the government supported by all the civil society organisations and the private health sector to rebuild health care in these areas. Strong calls were made for accountability and dismissal of politicians and civil servants who are responsible for the collapse of health care services, especially in Mpumalanga. Congress called for a new partnership between the national health department, provincial health departments and civil society organisations. The objective of this partnership is to save lives. Delegates strongly welcomed the participation of Dr Nono Simelela, Chief Director HIV/AIDS and STDs and KwaZulu Natal MEC for Health, Dr Zweli Mkhize. Delegates responded to the call from Dr Mkhize for a new partnership of community mobilisation for health by calling for a national day of community action against AIDS on August 8th 2002 and agreed to commit organisations to this campaign. In particular Congress supported the continuation of the SANAC, but called for it to be made more representative, accountable, transparent and dynamic. Congress also called for SANAC to be given resources and independence from politicians that is necessary to properly tackle the epidemic. The Congress broke into commissions which made detailed recommendations for inclusion in a national treatment plan in the following areas: 1.Piloting antiretroviral treatment and diagnostics in the Public Service 2.Treating sexually transmitted infections and opportunistic infections: targeting vulnerable groups such as women and children 3.Cutting the costs of medicines and diagnostics - investing in public health care 4.Doctors, nurses, volunteers: Building capacity and will to treat HIV 5.Improving prevention information, encouraging voluntary counselling and testing - a special role for young people 6.Social campaigns to support a treatment plan: the Basic Income Grant campaign, extending access to child welfare grants, workplace policies 7.Youth In conclusion delegates recommitted themselves to fighting to prevent new HIV infections, saving lives and improving the dignity and quality of life of all people in South Africa, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the African Union. The doors of health care services shall be opened! Coastlands Conference Centre, Durban, June 29th 2002 ****************** Statement by African delegates (from outside of South Africa) at the Congress Treat the people living with HIV/Aids, save lives now!! We as people living with HIV/AIDS, and as activists working to the betterment of the quality of lives of people living with HIV and AIDS have been privileged to attend the joint Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and COSATU congress on Access to treatment in Durban, South Africa taking place from 27-29 June 2002. AIDS is managing to undo almost all of the progress that we, as African countries, have been able to achieve in the time since independence. AIDS is robbing our countries of its most productive citizens. It is depriving our children of mothers and fathers; it is decimating the structure of our societies. Parents are now burying their children. We have the strong understanding that there will be no African Renaissance without a consistent full-scale confrontation with the epidemic. The most effective strategy to the alleviation of misery and suffering this virus has brought to our beloved countries is to provide access to treatment for those who are in need. For years now, most of us have been told that this is not feasible and affordable. People are dying when they could be kept alive. This is no longer acceptable, and we can no longer stand by and watch the painful destruction of our collective societies by this virus. Our different countries are in different stages of development in the battle, but together, we can learn from each other and support each other in our various endeavors on access to treatment whilst mindful of the holistic approach needed to triumph over this disease. We support the progress made by TAC in such a short period of time. Furthermore, we have learnt an extraordinary amount from the tenacity displayed by TAC and their refusal to stand by and watch people die. We believe that there is nothing to stop us from joining the treatment access campaign embarked upon by our South African comrades and saving as many lives as possible in our collective African countries. We are calling for a partnership promoting increased and urgent access to treatment in Africa, to share experiences on successful initiatives and to provoke a turnaround in the fight against the epidemic. This is a fight that cannot and will not be lost! A gathering will be organized in the near future to strategize on a continental access to treatment campaign. Treat the people now, HIV/AIDS spares nobody! Contact Winstone Zulu (at zuluwin@zamnet.zm) or Tenu Avafia (tavafia@lac.org.na) for more information on this initiative. Kindly sign this statement as an expression of solidarity. *************** SHORT DESCRIPTION OF KEY STATEMENTS MADE BY SPEAKERS AT CLOSING CEREMONY OF TAC/COSATU NATIONAL HIV/AIDS CONGRESS President of COSATU, Comrade Willie Madisha stated that NEPAD does not focus sufficiently on HIV/AIDS. He called on Africa leaders converging on Durban to create the African Union to deal adequately with the HIV epidemic. He called upon burial institutions to treat people who had died of HIV/AIDS and their families with dignity. He warned that history would be unkind to African leaders if they did not deal adequately with AIDS. He said "an infection to one is an infection to all" and "we must all work together to attack the enemy." Winstone Zulu, an AIDS activist from Zambia and a member of the Presidential AIDS Advisory Panel, told how he had been encouraged by the views of President Mbeki, one of his heroes, to wish HIV away. He stopped taking his antiretrovirals for two years, during which time his CD4 count dropped from 500 to 36. In February this year, he was very ill and began taking antiretrovirals again. He is now recovering. Winstone also read out a statement by the African delegates (from outside of South Africa) to the Congress. Nthombi Mbuthu and Isaac Skosana described their personal experiences with living HIV/AIDS. Isaac called upon Parliamentarians with HIV to declare their status and spread the truth. Judge Edwin Cameron noted that in June 1994 when cellphones were introduced to South Africa, there was no infrastructure and no training available to use and support a complex technological device. Today South Africa has 7 million cell phone users. He referred to the hypocricy of the claim that "African people can't take drugs because they can't tell the time " [a claim made by the head of USAID, Andrew Natsios]. He compared the importance of this conference and the proposal for a treatment plan to the Congress of the People in Kliptown in 1955 which adopted the Freedom Charter. ********************************