| Academic
Sector
Research
In Practice
The Spirit of Post-Modernism, Intellectual
Property and Evidence-based Understanding
Professor Uys (Executive Dean,
Health Services),
Professor Hoosen Coovadia (Victor Daitz Chair,
HIV/AIDS
and Head: Biomedical Unit, HIVAN)
and Smitha Maharaj (Head, Communications)
The University of KwaZulu-Natal hosted an HIV/AIDS
Research Showcase on the eve of World AIDS Day.
Presentations and panel discussions highlighted
research agendas and programmes within the various
University schools, departments and faculties.
Research across the medical and social sciences
was presented, as were critical socio-political
and legal issues.
In a keynote address entitled “HIV/AIDS:
Science, Technology and Innovation – issues
in addressing the challenge”, Dr Adi Paterson
addressed standards for the practice of ethical
research and treatment of AIDS patients. Referring
to the social consequences of
HIV/AIDS, Dr Paterson questioned values that
promote product-centric access to treatment. An
example cited was individual packaging of different
AIDS drugs to protect the property rights of different
companies, which makes it impossible to offer
AIDS patients a single pill containing all products.
Dr Paterson called for patient-centric approaches
that facilitate fair and equitable ease of access
to treatment. The ongoing legal debate surrounding
pricing for the sale and distribution of medicines
in South Africa has relevance.
Addressing diversity from another angle at the
research showcase, Dr Paterson admonished a “spirit
of post-modernism” that rendered all voices
equal in research and development. While acknowledging
the challenge of listening and engaging with a
“diversity of voice”, Dr Paterson
encouraged an “evidence-based understanding”
to rigorously challenge the “political priesthood”
that science can represent in closed networks.
With the admonition “Science must Communicate”,
he encouraged scientists across disciplines to
embrace a spirit of messaging that promotes equitable
access to information, and therefore, informed
choice. Specifically, he called for redress of
male-dominated messages that proliferate in HIV/AIDS
texts.
In a spirit of collaboration Dr Paterson asked
scientists to challenge views that place funding
for “social vaccines” at odds with
funding for “clinical vaccines”. Calling
for rigorous debate and review of alternative
forms of understanding, Dr Paterson called on
scientists to move from “explanation to
mobilisation”. He concluded by noting: “the
role of scientists is to constantly ask questions
of quality and transformative power”.
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