Motlanthe to Attend Intl AIDS Conference. 15/7/10
Motlanthe will be supported at the conference by Health Minister, Dr. Aaron Motsoaledi and Public Works Deputy Minister, Henrietta Bogopane-Zulu.
15 July 2010
Pretoria — Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe will on Friday lead a high level government delegation to the International AIDS conference in Vienna, Austria.
Convened under the theme: "Rights here, Right Now", the six-day conference which kicks off on Sunday, will provide South Africa with a platform to demonstrate the importance of sustained investments in HIV in achieving broader national and international health and development goals.
South Africa's participation at this year's conference comes amid an unprecedented massive HIV Counseling and Testing (HCT) campaign launched by President Jacob Zuma in April this year.
This campaign seeks to test about 15 million people for HIV by June next year while also promoting positive sex behavior.
On World AIDS Day in December last year, President Zuma announced far-reaching policy interventions around treatment; initiating patients on ARVs far sooner than was the case before, amongst others.
Motlanthe will be supported at the conference by Health Minister, Dr. Aaron Motsoaledi and Public Works Deputy Minister, Henrietta Bogopane-Zulu.
Motsoaledi will deliver an address during the plenary session of day three of the conference focusing on the theme of Universal Access and Treatment Scale-up.
South Africa's delegation at the conference will also provide a progress report against the indicators identified in the Declaration of Commitment signed by the UN General Assembly Special Session on HIV and AIDS (UNGASS) in June 2001.
Key among these commitments was the realization of Universal Access to HIV prevention and Treatment interventions by 2010