The Minister of Science and Technology, Naledi Pandor, has challenged health experts and researchers in South Africa to develop new HIV prevention tools to reduce HIV infections in the country.
The Minister was speaking at the opening of the HIVR4P conference (HIV Research for Prevention 2014: Aids Vaccine, Microbicide and ARV-based Prevention Science) in Cape Town this morning.
"The number of newly infected people each year continues to outnumber those who gain access to treatment. We need new prevention tools if we are to escape this epidemic. Investment in research and development for new prevention tools remains a critical goal for us all," said the Minister.
As no single HIV prevention method offers complete protection against HIV, South Africa's focus is on offering a package of effective, evidence-based HIV interventions. The Minister said this would allow South Africa to respond to the epidemic in a more comprehensive manner than would be possible with any individual intervention.
The Department of Science and Technology is supporting a number of projects at various stages of development though the Strategic Health Innovation Partnership. This programme facilitates interaction among South African HIV researchers and includes projects in respect of vaccine development, diagnostics and microbicides.
The Department is also supporting clinical trials involving the development of the 1 percent Tenofovir microbicide gel for HIV prevention among women, and it is hoped that the study will confirm the safety and efficacy needed for product registration.
The Minister commended global efforts to pursue the "HIV cure" agenda, saying that the various strategies being investigated would be more efficient in combination with one another, and should be pursued alongside the use of antiretroviral (ARV) treatment to protect the immune system of patients until a cure was found.
Minister Pandor reaffirmed the government's commitment to HIV prevention as an essential component of an effective response to HIV/Aids.
South Africa attaches particular importance to the fight against Aids, with prevention at the heart of the country's National Strategic Plan for HIV, Sexually Transmitted Infections and TB (2012-2016) (NSP). The NSP acknowledges that the trajectory of the global response to Aids will depend to a large extent on the ability to prevent new infections.
"As you engage in discussions during this conference, I request you to be especially mindful of that which we know to work in reducing transmissions and how we can implement that knowledge and take it to scale for the benefit of our communities. While noting that the development of some interventions such as vaccines remains a daunting scientific challenge, in our view the implementation of already available interventions that have been demonstrated to work would take us a step further in reaching the final objective of ending the HIV epidemic," said the Minister.
South Africa has been able to put 2.4 million people on ARV treatment and reduce the rate of mother-to-child HIV transmissions from 8 percent in 2008 to 2.7 per cent in 2012. The increase in the provision of ARV treatment has resulted in a reduction in the number of people dying as a result of HIV infection and a significant reduction in the levels of mother-to-child HIV transmission rates.
However, without prevention, the number of affected people will continue to escalate and the disease will continue spreading, threatening the country's health care system.
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Lunga Ngqengelele, Media Liaison Officer
Tel: 021 469 5005
