FXI believes that providing people with information regarding HIV/Aids, could have a significant impact on turning around the rate of infection. In particular, with regard to medical treatment and providing patients with choices. FXI welcomes government's initiative to set up a National Aids Council. However FXI hopes that the Council will, in finding ways to significantly translate levels of awareness into changes in behaviour, also look at patients rights to information.

Prevention is not limited to informing South Africans about the ways they can get the disease. In some cases, prevention is still possible after a person has been exposed to the virus. In the case of HIV+ mother to child transmission and sexual assault, it is vital that the patients are immediately and sufficiently informed about existing treatments that can prevent the infection from developing.

Although these medications are not available at state hospitals, patients should still be informed about their existence, their side effects and places where they can be accessed. It is not for a district-surgeon, or anybody else, to decide whether a patient can afford to pay for the anti-retroviral treatment. Even though a person might not be able to pay for the treatment, he or she should still be informed about the treatment available. The person's relatives or friends may be able to help with payment.

By not informing underprivileged patients about their choices, health care workers are denying their rights to information and access to healthcare. These rights are secured in both the recently released National Patients Rights Charter and the Constitution, as well as International Treaties signed by the South African government. Trampling upon these vital rights is a violation of human rights. FXI hopes that the Health Department will point this out in the upcoming standard treatment guidelines on HIV/AIDS for health care workers.

FXI is also concerned about the access to publicly and privately held information regarding AZT. In anticipation of the Open Democracy Bill, government should be more willing to answer questions about its anti-retroviral policy. FXI is particularly concerned about the fact that, despite promises made in a Joint Statement with Treatment Action Campaign on 23rd March 1999, government has still not revealed what it considers an "affordable price" for AZT. Government is already facing the possibility of being found guilty of a human rights abuse in this regard as a result of a complaint received by the Human Rights Commission. Dr. Costa Gazi argued that the denial to anti-retroviral drugs is a violation of the human rights of HIV+ mothers. Government could find itself being accused of being partly responsible for the infection of at least 35,000 babies a year, of which 67% percent might have been prevented by making treatment truly accessible. Apart from that, according to medical expert Dr. Sharmaine Bauer, another estimated 8,000 rape survivors are exposed to the virus on a yearly basis.

On the occasion of World Aids Day, FXI would like to encourage government to reassess its information strategy on the prevention and confinement of HIV.

For further information contact:

Laura Pollecutt 083 602 5507 or Gabbi Mesters: (011)-403 8403