Dear Subscribers (Durban, 29 June 2002) In this email: * 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 liv