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| HIV/AIDS counselor Florence Ngubani, left, briefs
Albright about the conditions at Chris Hani Baragwanath
Hospital in Soweto, South Africa on Friday |
SOWETO,
South Africa (AP) -- Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
toured a South African AIDS research clinic Friday to draw
attention to the pandemic ravaging the continent and the
effort to fight it.
"This
disease knows no boundaries, knows no particular people,
it's just an equality killer," she said. "What
is important is that finally the world is paying attention
to the disease."
But
more needs to be done, she said as she toured the Perinatal
HIV Research Unit at Soweto's Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital.
The unit is one of 11 South African sites that receives
U.S. funding for HIV research.
The
United States is also providing $40 million over the next
five years to help South Africa increase awareness about
the disease.
South Africa, with an estimated 4.2 million HIV-positive
people, has the largest population of HIV-infected people
in the world.
Albright
met later in the day with South African President Thabo
Mbeki, a discussion expected to touch on the disease. Mbeki
canceled a joint news conference scheduled for after the
meeting.
The
South African president has suffered withering international
condemnation for entertaining the views of fringe theorists
who doubt the link between HIV and AIDS and, in some cases,
doubt the existence of the disease at all. Official announced
two months ago that Mbeki would pull back from the AIDS
debate.
South
Africa also has been criticized for refusing to provide
anti-retroviral medication to pregnant women to prevent
the transmission of the virus to their babies in childbirth.
Recently, however, the government gave conditional approval
to the anti-retroviral drug nevirapine, to be distributed
to pregnant women.
Additionally,
South Africa agreed last week to accept a $50 million donation
from the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer of the drug fluconazole,
which treats meningitis and a debilitating throat inflammation
common among AIDS patients.
Health
Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang took steps against the
stigma of HIV last week by revealing that some of her friends
and relatives were infected.
Deputy
Minister Jacob Zuma on Wednesday admitted that despite the
government's efforts "the HIV/AIDS army marches on
unchecked on its path of destruction."
The
government had no choice but to change its tone, said Mark
Heywood, director of the AIDS Law Project.
"The
AIDS epidemic is becoming more and more in your face to
quite a number of people. People are dying, people are seeing
people dying, and there are senior politicians in the Cabinet
who are clearly now of the view that we must do something
about it," he said.
Earlier
Friday, Albright met privately with Nobel Peace laureate
Archbishop Desmond Tutu in Cape Town and had breakfast with
a group of female business and government leaders.
Albright
will fly to the island nation of Mauritius on Saturday,
then will stop in Botswana. She also plans to travel to
Algeria on Tuesday for the signing of a peace treaty between
Ethiopia and Eritrea, which formally ends a two-year border
war. She will then travel to Hungary and Brussels.
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