Lange,+Stewart+6

12/2/09 In a widley welcomed speech to mark world AIDS day the South African president promised more anti-retrovirals - drugs which the previous government said were too costly. This will help to treat AIDS in SA. The president also says that he will take the test too. Each year 59,000 babies are born with HIV in a country where 5.2 million people live with the virus. South Africa has the highest amount of people living with AIDS in any nation. The president's, Mr. Zuma, speech is a marked departure from Mr Mbeki, whose government denied the link between HIV and Aids. Mr Mbeki's critics have accused him of causing about 300,000 deaths by not rolling out anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) to people with HIV quickly enough. Mr Zuma's change of policy was welcomed by the opposition Democratic Alliance as "the new spirit of activism" on HIV. The Treatment Action Campaign, which took legal action against Mr Mbeki's government to secure ARVs, hailed the announcement as a "positive change". The UK's Department for International Development also welcomed the decision. "South Africa has turned a corner and is embarking on a new and bold drive to take responsibility for tackling HIV and Aids," a spokesperson said. "The UK will continue to support South Africa to realise its ambition of reducing new HIV infections and increasing access to effective treatments." Currently, treatment is available in South Africa only for people whose immunity levels have been significantly reduced by HIV. Mr Zuma announced in his speech that the drugs would be available more widely to children and pregnant women. He described it as the start of "an era of openness" and urged South Africans to take responsibility for themselves.

BBC: [] ABC news: [] BBC was a bit more detailed about the story abou how South Africa is increaseing the amount of drugs available to people with AIDS. The article from ABC was a bit more about the pesident taking the test. Both articles were very explanitory and both were written very well.

I think that this is a very good thing that South Africa is doing and I hope this will help the worlds problem with AIDS. I hope that many other nations will follow suit and do the same thing that South Africa is doing. I hope that we will eventualy eliminate tese problewms with AIDS.