Return to Transcripts main page
INSIDE AFRICA
AIDS Day
Aired November 29, 2008 - 12:30:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JIM CLANCY, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to INSIDE AFRICA. I'm Jim Clancy, in once again for Isha Sesay. We're going to begin our report with a stunning indictment of South Africa's AIDS policy under former President Thabo Mbeki. Now, there is a Harvard study out that blames the Mbeki administration for the premature deaths of an estimated 365,000 people earlier this decade. The researchers say those deaths could have been prevented if the government had embraced widely accepted AIDS medications.
Now, Mr. Mbeki's spokesman told "The New York Times" that all AIDS policy decisions were made collectively by Mbeki's cabinet, and that any questions on the matter should be referred to the government.
Now, South Africa has a new president, and a new health minister, along with a new AIDS policy. Our own Nkapile Mabuse sat down with Barbara Hogan, and asked her what she will do differently.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARBARA HOGAN, SOUTH AFRICAN HEALTH MINISTER: As far as I'm concerned, I've been given the full mandate to go ahead, not get involved in these arcane discussions about what causes HIV and AIDS. I have received absolute support from my cabinet on everything that I'm doing, and so I believe we've turned the corner, and we turned the corner some time ago.
I mean, the -- we have the highest numbers of people on antiretrovirals in the whole world. And I think we turned the corner some time ago, now to public messaging, now to education, now to prevention programs, now to scaling up the prevention of mother-to-child transmission programs, now to all systems go.
NKAPILE MABUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: How do you plan on weeding out this miscommunication and these myths, and you know, these misconceptions that have arisen?
HOGAN: Well, you do several things. You do public messaging, like on World AIDS Day, you do messaging, that you do consistent messaging on that, and that's what's got to happen. You do education through schools. You do education at clinics. You do education at homes, through home-based care, and South Africa has a huge army of people who do home-based care of community health workers who work in the communities, at local level, who are there to advise and to consult people. So it goes from, you know, your high-level communications through media, through to your local communication on the ground.
MABUSE: What I'm essentially trying to find out, Minister, is what are you going to do that is different to what the former minister of health did?
HOGAN: We'll certainly establish a very good working relationship with the South African National AIDS Council. That's the body that is responsible for the whole rollout of the national strategic plan on the prevention of HIV and treatment of HIV and AIDS. It's civil society, it's government, it's the private sector. It's all of us there together, and we want to make (inaudible) the centerpiece of our rollout program.
MABUSE: One of your provincial ministers is advocating for traditional medicine to be used in conjunction with antiretroviral drugs to treat AIDS patients and HIV-positive people. Do you support that?
HOGAN: I would prefer to be able to speak to her and hear what is -- what's her views are on this matter.
Traditional medicine, certain of them, have a role to play in terms of wellness and those factors, and we have a policy document out at the moment, which we would want to see traditional medicines coming within a regulated environment. But our prime flagship is antiretrovirals. And if there are cures that are masquerading as traditional medicine, then I think those need be put under scrutiny. And I would not support any support of those.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CLANCY: South African Health Minister Barbara Hogan there.
HIV and AIDS still take a bigger toll on Sub-Saharan Africa than any other part of the world. A 2008 report by the joint U.N. program on HIV/AIDS estimated 1.9 million Sub-Saharan Africans became infected with HIV last year. That brings the total number of infections in the region to about 22 million, or 67 percent of the total around the world.
Based on data collected in recent years, though, some African countries are making progress. Infection rates have fallen in Kenya, Zimbabwe, and parts of Burkina Faso. UNAIDS reports the epidemic appears to be leveling off across the region.
What essential weapon do we have against this scourge? Education is one of them, and up next on INSIDE AFRICA, some Kenyan widows try to teach their community about the dangers of a tribal tradition.
Also ahead, every little bit helps. British Airways collects spare change and helps keep newborns HIV free.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A lot of people have their own attitude. They actually have not been educated enough, put it that way.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look, I'm a traditional person myself. I have a traditional upbringing. But I don't think one should ignore the western way of healing, which is, you know, your educated doctors.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CLANCY: Welcome back, everyone, to this special World AIDS Day edition of INSIDE AFRICA.
You know, tradition can sometimes stand in the way of progress, and that certainly applies to the fight against AIDS. There are parts of Kenya where a tradition of wife inheritance has driven up infection rates. As David McKenzie reports, though, a group of widows trying to end that practice for future generations.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fisherman in Homa Bay bringing another bountiful catch. It's a daily tradition on Lake Victoria that keeps this community thriving. But just a short distance into the interior, traditions among the Luo tribe, where polygamy is common, are deadly. The culprit -- AIDS, and a tribal practice called wife inheritance.
It was a noble concept. When a husband died, his male relatives took care of his widow's physical needs. The relationship was meant to be non- sexual. Now, that's often not the case, and it's fueling already high rates of HIV infection.
MCKENZIE: So, this where your former husband was buried.
ANN AKINYI, LIVING WITH HIV: Yeah.
MCKENZIE: Ann Akinyi's husband died when she was 22. Soon after the funeral, she was forced to have sex with a distant relative, who already had several wives. She told them she was HIV-positive.
AKINYI: It's a bit hectic, because if somebody (inaudible) alive, does somebody has to be intimate with you, without love?
MCKENZIE: Luo tribal rites mean a distance relative must inherit a widow. Often, he's already married. Without this ritual, women aren't allowed to plant their crops or see their children. It's part of a complex system of taboo.
Wife inheritance is hurting not just individual women, but whole communities here. Kenneth Otieno works for the National AIDS Council. He's seen entire homesteads wiped out because of wife inheritance.
KENNETH OTIENO, NATIONAL AIDS COUNCIL: This is abandoned (inaudible) because culturally or traditionally, nobody's supposed to occupy this (inaudible) house.
MCKENZIE: He says the man who lived in this house contracted AIDS from a woman he inherited, and then passed it on to his two wives. All three died. The house is now shuttered. There are dozens like it, just in this small community.
OTIENO: Wife inheritance spreads AIDS like hell, because if -- if a widow is left, and she's HIV positive, whoever inherits this lady will definitely take this to his home.
MCKENZIE: But now these weeping widows are banding together, trying to convince the community that the practice can kill, and believes this might be the best shot for the area. All of these women have been tested and the majority are HIV-positive, but still, men's attitudes aren't helping.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They were born once and they'll die once. (inaudible) not a problem.
MCKENZIE: Sylvester Orwa is the oldest man in the area and an expert on local taboos. Despite all the risks, he supports the practice.
SYLVESTER ORWA, HOMA BAY ELDER (through translator): Wife inheritance is good. Because when somebody has died, the widow is left at the childbearing age. It is important for somebody who could be well defined as the brother-in-law to step in, to sustain the family.
MCKENZIE: But he agrees wife inheritance has changed, that men are now doing it for bragging rights, not to support the widow.
The man who inherited Ann left her after only a few weeks. She lives alone, and antiretroviral drugs are keeping her healthy and hopeful for the future. She feels it will be a long fight.
AKINYU: Maybe after our generation, our children will change it. But for the generations that we're in, I doubt if it will ever change.
MCKENZIE: Not if the widows of Homa Bay have anything to do about it. They're tired of a cultural practice that threatens their community survival and they aren't afraid to shout about it.
David McKenzie, CNN, Homa Bay, Kenya.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CLANCY: Well, one reason many Africans avoid getting tested for HIV is the fear they'll be shunned. Still ahead on INSIDE AFRICA, we're going to tell you about a health project in Kenya that tries to ease the problem by throwing a party and targeting three illnesses at once.
But first, British Airways enlists its own passengers to fight HIV in newborns. You're watching INSIDE AFRICA.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Making business news in Africa. The price of top- quality Kenyan tea continues to slide. But in a market report, Africa tea brokers said there were signs of improving demand for lower-quality tea. Even with the recent price decline, the industry expects record earnings in 2008, of more than $630 million.
South African business confidence has apparently fallen to an almost eight year low. A quarterly study indicates only a third of those surveyed are satisfied with current business conditions in the county. It was a ninth consecutive quarterly decline in the index.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CLANCY: Welcome back. You're with a special World AIDS Day edition of INSIDE AFRICA.
Now, many of our viewers are frequent international travelers. Often, you have to handle foreign currency. And for many of us, exchanging all those leftover notes and coins before we take the trip home just not worth the trouble. Richard Quest explains how that spare change comes in handy in Africa's fight against HIV and AIDS.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ladies and gentlemen, if I could just take a moment of your time, I'll ask you if you wish to make a...
RICHARD QUEST, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It all starts here, on board. Homeward bound, pockets and purses stuffed with currency from a country left behind.
British Airways has been collecting spare change this way for 14 years, little by little, across thousands of flights.
Then, in a secret counting room, the cents become dollars, the dollars become seven-figure sums. To date, $50 million has been raised. This trip, every little bit helps.
And this is one of the places where that money is spent. In Tanzania, where B.A. focuses on maternity clinics. Here, pregnant women with HIV learn how to prevent transmitting the virus to their babies. With the right medicine, transmission can be reduced from 40 percent to just 2 percent.
B.A.'s chief executive Willie Walsh knows the numbers, but he's never met the people who benefit face to face.
WILLIE WALSH, CEO, BRITISH AIRWAYS: You imagine what the people are going to be like, and then you actually get to see it, and it's staggering. It really just put everything into prospective.
QUEST: Tanzania's HIV projects have received more than half a million dollars from Change for Good.
And this is really what this clinic is all about, little one, just three hours old.
The benefits are immediately obvious, babies born free from HIV. To really make it work takes more than just money, though. The flight attendants play a crucial role. So they're taken to see the projects for themselves. When they make the announcement, they do it with more feeling.
BRUCE HARRIS, BA FLIGHT ATTENDANT: They have to believe in the good things that people can do. And people can do good things (inaudible), just a few pennies. I've seen hundreds of those (inaudible) going into it, and it's going to make a big, big difference. They've seen it today.
QUEST: The Change for Good scheme was set up by UNICEF in 1987. Its simplicity was its greatest asset. And 20 years on, that remains true.
The relationship between airline and charity is close. B.A. has a lot of say in the country supported, and ultimately knows that other charities would like a piece of his pie.
HARRIS: I get a lot of people saying to me, come on, you know, UNICEF have had it for so long, please give us an opportunity.
QUEST: Answer it. How do you answer that? UNICEF have had it for 13 years, give it to someone else.
HARRIS: Well, you know, I think it is something that, you know, we will have to think about. We work very closely with UNICEF. It's been a great relationship. I suppose one of the concerns that we all might have is just this gets stale after a while, you know. You talk about trying to keep it alive, and it relies on good will, you know. Is there a risk that people, you know, have heard it all, and sort of say, well, yeah, yeah, and that they actually stop contributing?
QUEST: Most major airlines have a little envelope ready to take your money, whether it goes to UNICEF, Save the Children, or some other charity.
HARRIS: It's a simple message, you know. Kids being born with a chance of survival, kids being born free of HIV/AIDS. You know, and all down to, you know, the funding that our customers and customers in other airlines have contributed to help educate people and provide them with the -- the skills and the tools to ensure that these children have a chance in life.
QUEST: It all starts by giving away your spare change. And with the contributions of others, real change can take place.
Richard Quest, CNN, Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CLANCY: Well, money talks, no doubt about that, but you know, knowledge is power. Up next on INSIDE AFRICA, health care workers find another way to reach people who would rather not know whether they're HIV positive or not. How do they do it -- up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think more people are testing, even though they're still scared but they're testing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The last time, I tested. It was quick, and I encouraged my friends to come with me, and they got tested. And I'm happy to say that we're all negative.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CLANCY: Welcome back to INSIDE AFRICA's special World AIDS Day show. One of the biggest obstacles we all know in Africa's fight against AIDS is the stigma attached to people who learn they're HIV-positive. There's a new program, though, that shows that many people will actually get tested if -- if they can get protection from other common illnesses in the bargain. Gary Strieker explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY STRIEKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It seems like a carnival. Huge crowds gathering for a good time. Yvon Chakachaka (ph) singing some of her biggest hits. With comedians, traditional musicians and acrobats. By appearances, you wouldn't know this is a serious public health project in western Kenya, and that all these people standing in lines and waiting for hours were here to get protection from malaria and diarrhea, and to have themselves tested for HIV infection.
LOUIS DA GAMA, GLOBAL HEALTH ADVOCATE: What makes this project unique is it's actually using the needs for health prevention in malaria and in -- in diarrhea, but using that as a way of encouraging people to come forward and be tested. And the biggest problem with HIV control today is the need to actually get people to know their HIV status.
STRIEKER: Kenya's goal is to test 80 percent of its population for HIV by 2010. But the current figure is less than 20 percent.
DR. OSCAR ENDEKWA, DISTRICT MEDICAL OFFICER: Our aim is to make sure that 80 percent of the community know their HIV status, to help us in controlling new infections, and being able to care for the ones who are living with HIV and saw reduced deaths relating to HIV/AIDS.
STRIEKER: But convincing people to be tested is a major challenge anywhere, especially in small communities, where anyone who's even suspected of testing positive for HIV can be stigmatized, shunned by family and neighbors. Many prefer not to know their status.
ENDEKWA: Initially, we tried -- we did a small survey and found the communities' concerns, why people don't want to come for HIV and AIDS. The issue is, when I know my status, what happens to my life, what happens to my career, what happens to my family?
STRIEKER: That's why this weeklong prevention demonstration project is seen as a huge breakthrough. The crowds here heard from Kenyans living with HIV, testifying how they manage their illness and live normal lives by taking antiretroviral drugs provided by the government. How HIV infection is no longer a sentence of death. And by the thousands here, they volunteered to be tested for HIV.
DA GAMA: Here, they're actually within their community, with their neighbors, with other people within their community being tested openly. And hopefully through that process, we can actually try to break some of the very big issues around stigma.
STRIEKER: The concept for this project is combining multiple disease control interventions into one integrated campaign that reaches thousands of people at one time. Just by showing up, everyone gets a care pack with a free insecticide-treated bednet to protect against malaria, a high-tech water purifier called "life straw" to break the cycle of chronic diarrhea, and a supply of condoms. And then, confidential HIV testing and counseling.
The Swiss manufacturer of these bednets and water filters donated the products and underwrote the expenses of the campaign.
MIKKEL VESTERGAARD FRANDSEN, VESTERGAARD FRANDSEN SA: We have learned, which we suspected, that the response to malaria, diarrhea and HIV is so much more powerful united than apart.
STRIEKER: As in much of the country and across Africa, malaria and water- related diarrheal diseases are the primary killers in western Kenya. And for victims of HIV, with impaired immune systems, chronic diarrhea is a leading cause of death. That's why proper use of insecticide-treated bednets and water purifiers has the potential to reduce deaths from malaria, diarrheal disease and HIV/AIDS.
In this demonstration over a period of seven days, at 30 sites in an area near Kakamega, more than 50,000 care packs were given to individuals and families. Nearly 47,000 tested for HIV. Among those, 2,016 tested positive for the virus, about 4.3 percent of the total.
DA GAMA: We need to be certain that those people coming forward and actually being positive are adequately looked after, that they get into support groups, that they get on treatment as necessary, and that we actually look after them.
STRIEKER: And in the months ahead, if all these bednets and water purifiers are properly used, there should be dramatic improvements here in public health, from a campaign that could be a model for others in Africa.
In Kakamega, Kenya, Gary Strieker, for CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CLANCY: Well, that has to be it for this, our special World AIDS Day edition of INSIDE AFRICA. I'm Jim Clancy. Isha Sesay will be back next week with a brand new show. Thank you all for being with us.
END
