South African specifics

This week not only has The Star has fallen into the trap of using a clichéd saying to provide a snappy headline, but the paper has also neglected to include events which were integral to HIV prevention and treatment in the South African context.

‘Battles against Aids have been won but the war is not over,’ this is the headline that appeared in The Star yesterday morning. Language and imagery centering on combat and battle have often been used to describe the HIV pandemic.

It is important to remember that while language describes our world it also, in turn, colours and constructs our view of it. Therefore writers should be careful how they depict HIV and those affected by it, especially in a social climate rife with stigma.

Stylistic errors are not the only issue in this particular article. The story also fails to include Thabo Mbeki’s denialism and Manto’s misinformation campaign, which were germane to South Africa’s HIV related history.

According to two separate studies, 300 000 lives were lost as a result of policy decisions and statements made during the Mbeki-Manto misinformation campaign. 300 000 would seem to be quite a significant amount especially given that researchers state that the estimate errs on the side of caution. It would be highly legitimate to argue that this period in South Africa’s HIV and AIDS history had effects that rippled into the present and will continue to ripple into the future.

This reason alone makes it a disappointing, yet important landmark in South Africa’s path to overcoming HIV.

One can concede that this article appeared in the ‘World’ section of the popular newspaper and therefore could argue that the article surveyed 30 years of HIV at a purely international level.

However South Africa’s trajectory as it relates to HIV and AIDS is in many ways unique and yet no country exists in a vacuum, unaffected by what goes on in the wider world. Nor is the wider world oblivious or immune to what happens on our small patch of earth.

Sources and further reading

JournAIDS.org, Key people-Manto Tshabalala Msimang

JournAIDS.org, Key people- Thabo Mbeki

Timeslive.co.za, Manto Dies, 16 December 2009

Timesonline.co.uk, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang: former South African Health Minister, 24 December 2009