S Africa aims to cut new HIV infections by 50 pct

JOHANNESBURG, Dec 1 (Reuters) South Africa unveiled a draft five-year battle plan against HIV/AIDS today, vowing to cut new infections by 50 per cent and turn back an epidemic now killing almost 1,000 South Africans each day.

In a rare show of unity, government officials joined community leaders and activists to announce the new policy which, while lacking much detail, was still hailed as an important step in a country where AIDS policy has long been marked by ferocious political disputes.

Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, who has come to symbolise the government's new approach to AIDS, launched the plan in Nelspruit in the northeastern Mpumalanga province.

''Working together, we can cultivate a society that will challenge the stigma and discrimination that undermine HIV prevention, treatment and care efforts,'' Mlambo-Ngcuka said.

The plan, to be finalised by March, calls for South Africa to halve the annual number of new HIV infections by 2011 and deliver treatment and support to 80 per cent of HIV-positive children, adults and their families, her aides said.

South Africa will also aim to improve access to testing and counselling and boost AIDS education efforts.

Early hopes for more detailed targets on each of these areas were not realised, however.

''The plan does not focus extensively on the how of implementation. It is relatively weak on that,'' said Laetitia Rispell, an AIDS researcher at South Africa's Human Sciences Research Council.

Estimates released this week detailed the relentless spread of HIV/AIDS in South Africa, where an estimated 5.4 million of the country's more than 45 million people are infected with the deadly virus.

The Actuarial Society of South Africa said 1.8 million South Africans have thus far died of AIDS, while a further 1,400 people were infected every day in 2006.

President Thabo Mbeki's government has been criticised by AIDS activists for downplaying anti-retroviral drugs and questioning basic tenets of AIDS science -- resulting in mixed messages that health experts say have crippled the country's response to the disaster.

The new plan was developed after South Africa came in for angry ridicule at this year's global AIDS conference in Toronto -- an embarrassment which many analysts say may have finally persuaded the government to change its tack.

REUTERS PB RK2140