PMID- 25929959
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20160216
LR  - 20220330
IS  - 1548-3576 (Electronic)
IS  - 1548-3568 (Linking)
VI  - 12
IP  - 2
DP  - 2015 Jun
TI  - A Political and Social History of HIV in South Africa.
PG  - 256-61
LID - 10.1007/s11904-015-0259-7 [doi]
AB  - For the past 25 years, South Africa has had to deal with the inexorable and 
      monumental rise of HIV. From one or two isolated cases, in the late 1980s, South 
      Africa now has an estimated 6.4 million people infected with HIV, with high rates 
      of concomitant tuberculosis, which will profoundly affect the country for decades 
      to come. For nearly 10 years, the South African government's response to the HIV 
      epidemic was described as denialist, which was estimated to have resulted in the 
      deaths of 330,000 people because lifesaving antiretroviral therapy (ART) was not 
      provided (Chigwedere et al. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr. 49:410-15, 2008; Heywood 
      2004). However, the story of the HIV and AIDS response in South Africa over the 
      past 5 years is one of great progress after almost a decade of complex and tragic 
      denialism that united civil society in a way not seen since the opposition to 
      apartheid. Today, South Africa can boast of close to 3 million people on ART, by 
      far the largest number in the world. Prevention efforts appear to be yielding 
      results but there continues to be large numbers of new infections, with a 
      profound peak in incidence in young women aged 15 to 24 years. In addition, 
      infections occur across the gender spectrum in older age groups. As a result of 
      the massive increase in access to ART after 2004 and particularly after 2008 as 
      political will towards the HIV ART programme improved, there has been a marked 
      increase in life expectancy, from 56 to 61 years in the period 2009-2012 alone; 
      the aggressive expansion of the prevention of mother to child transmission 
      (PMTCT) to HIV-positive pregnant women has been accompanied by dramatic decrease 
      in HIV transmission to infants; and a 25 % decrease in child and infant mortality 
      rates in the period 2009-2012. This progress in access is significantly due to a 
      civil society movement that was prepared to pose a rights-based challenge to a 
      governing party in denial and to brave health officials, politicians and 
      clinicians working in a hostile system to bring about change.
FAU - Simelela, Nono
AU  - Simelela N
AD  - The Presidency, Union Buildings, Government Avenue, Pretoria, South Africa, 
      nonosimelela@gmail.com.
FAU - Venter, W D Francois
AU  - Venter WD
FAU - Pillay, Yogan
AU  - Pillay Y
FAU - Barron, Peter
AU  - Barron P
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Review
PL  - United States
TA  - Curr HIV/AIDS Rep
JT  - Current HIV/AIDS reports
JID - 101235661
RN  - 0 (Anti-Retroviral Agents)
SB  - IM
MH  - Anti-Retroviral Agents/therapeutic use
MH  - Delivery of Health Care/organization & administration
MH  - Female
MH  - HIV Infections/*prevention & control/transmission
MH  - Humans
MH  - Infectious Disease Transmission, Vertical/*prevention & control
MH  - *Politics
MH  - Pregnancy
MH  - *Social Determinants of Health
MH  - South Africa
EDAT- 2015/05/02 06:00
MHDA- 2016/02/18 06:00
CRDT- 2015/05/02 06:00
PHST- 2015/05/02 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2015/05/02 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2016/02/18 06:00 [medline]
AID - 10.1007/s11904-015-0259-7 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Curr HIV/AIDS Rep. 2015 Jun;12(2):256-61. doi: 10.1007/s11904-015-0259-7.