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"On The Cusp: HIV/AIDS - Chaos or Survival?"
By
Professor Eleanor Preston-Whyte
 In this editorial, I will report on the main outcomes of a number of high level and exciting HIV/AIDS events which are being staged by HIVAN in association with the School of Development Studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal over the next few weeks. These events have already been advertised on the HIVAN website and we will be bringing you further news of them, their content and speakers as the weeks leading up to World AIDS Day go by. We hope that some of you will be attending all, or many, of these events and we invite you, in particular to the first event on Monday the 23rd October. This will be a panel debate on the current state of the HIV/AIDS statistics, both in regard to adults and children in the country, and also of the social and economic implications of these figures for the future.
You will be able to interact with us by way of a chat room between each session. We will also carry information on the speakers and comments in response to their presentations by means of editorials.
As we all know, HIV/AIDS is a field of intense controversy and often acrimonious debate in South Africa. Despite the increasing commitment of both professionals and volunteers to mitigating its repercussions, the HIV/AIDS epidemic is by no means under control. Contributing to this untenable and dangerous situation have been disputes between government and the scientific community, focused initially on the link between HIV and AIDS, but now on alternative models for the treatment of HIV/AIDS. Advances in medical science and new treatment regimens add to the confusion and controversy among lay people. For policy makers at all levels of government, and for managers in the public and private sectors, the burden of making informed decisions ranging from resource allocation to deciding between competing management strategies, is an increasingly heavy one.
The objective of our debates is to provide direction to HIV/AIDS managers in the health field, and also to individuals faced with understanding HIV in their own lives. The series aims to build a broad-based, holistic assessment of the diverse facets of the disease and its current and possible future repercussions. We are also seeking to develop what may be thought of as an ongoing and cumulative ‘community of learning and thinking’ around HIV/AIDS. All who attend in person or who read our website will be partners to our deliberations and we anticipate will represent a wide range of bio-medical, social and economic perspectives on HIV/AIDS. This, we believe, will ensure that the debates are relevant and of interest to the widest possible audience.
The schedule for the first panel debate is as follows:
- Adult HIV/AIDS Statistics and their social implications for SA;
- HIV/AIDS Statistics on children & orphans & their social implications for SA
- The economic implications of the figures for the country
- The health sector implications of the figures for the country
- Summary and wrap up: Towards policy making for survival
Among the speakers will be Professor Alan Whiteside, Dr. Leikness Simbayi, Mr Chris Desmond, and Mr Hein Marais. A grand and informed panel, as I am sure you will agree. Now all that is needed is wide participation from those interested and concerned about the epidemic and its repercussions. Please feel free to respond to us in either English, Zulu or Afrikaans. We will capture the major thrusts of the comments we receive and relay them back to our ‘community of learning and thinking’.
Please join us! Full and updated information on the Debates programme can be obtained here
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