PartnersGF - 2004-07-17

IAC 2004: Mandela: fight AIDS by fighting TB
HDN Key Correspondents Team
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For the third International AIDS Conference in succession, former South African President Nelson Mandela has come to inspire and re-motivate us all. Yesterday his message was clear: HIV/AIDS cannot be tackled in isolation from other diseases like tuberculosis (TB).

“We are all here because of our commitment to fighting AIDS. But we cannot win the battle against AIDS if we do not also fight TB. TB is too often a death sentence for people with AIDS,” Mr Mandela said on his arrival in Bangkok. “It does not have to be this way. We have known how to cure TB for more than fifty years. What we have lacked is the will and the resources to quickly diagnose people with TB and get them the treatment they need,” he added.

Speaking during a press conference to launch a new TB/HIV initiative supported by the Gates Foundation in three countries, Madiba recounted his own experiences of TB while he was in jail on Robben Island.

“I was in jail when they took a specimen of my sputum and sent it to the hospital. I was diagnosed with TB. When the report came back they indicated that fortunately we sent the specimen before there were holes in the lungs,” he recounted. “It would take only about four months to cure the TB if I treated it correctly. I went onto treatment and was completely cured in four months.”

Mr Mandela shared the podium with Winstone Zulu, a Zambian activist who is himself a survivor of TB, and also living with HIV. “I am alive today because I took TB drugs when many people couldn’t afford to get them,” Mr Zulu said. “I have seen so many friends, and have lost my own four brothers, who have died from tuberculosis simply because they did not get the drugs to have themselves treated.”

“The world has made the defeat of AIDS its top priority. This is a blessing, but TB remains ignored,” added Mr Mandela. “Today, we are calling on the world to recognise that we can’t fight AIDS unless we do much more to fight TB as well.”

On the penultimate night of the conference, Mr Mandela hosted a concert to mark his worldwide HIV/AIDS campaign named after his Robben Island prisoner number, 46664. The campaign was launched in November 2003 and aims to raise awareness. “46664 was my prison number. For over eighteen years I was imprisoned on Robben Island, I was known as just a number,” he said. “Millions of people today infected with HIV are just that – a number.”

We are sure that you will all join us in wishing Madiba a very happy 86th birthday for this coming Sunday.


HDN Key Correspondents Team
Email: correspondents@hdnet.org

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Today's Quote
"If we demanded from our leadership what we want, these huge problems could all be over in five years. We are letting our elected leaders get away with this."
Mary Robinson