Pieter Fourie - The Politics of AIDS Denialism: South Africas Failure to Respond

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THE POLITICS OF AIDS DENIALISM

Global Health

Series Editors: Professor Nana K. Poku, John Ferguson Professor, University of Bradford, UK and Dr Robert L. Ostergard, Assistant Professor, University of Nevada, USA and Research Fellow Centre of Democractic Performance

The benefits of globalization are potentially enormous, as a result of the increased sharing of ideas, cultures, life-saving technologies and efficient production processes. Yet globalization is under trial, partly because these benefits are not yet reaching hundreds of millions of the worlds poor and partly because globalization has introduced new kinds of international problems and conflicts. Turmoil in one part of the world now spreads rapidly to others, through terrorism, armed conflict, environmental degradation or disease.

This timely series provides a robust and multi-disciplinary assessment of the asymmetrical nature of globalization. Books in the series encompass a variety of areas, including global health and the politics of governance, poverty and insecurity, gender and health and the implications of global pandemics.

Also in the series

Gender and HIV/AIDS
Critical Perspectives from the Developing World
Edited by Jelke Boesten and Nana K. Poku
ISBN 978 0 7546 7269 2

AIDS, South Africa, and the Politics of Knowledge
Jeremy R. Youde
ISBN 978 0 7546 7003 2

AIDS and Governance
Edited by Nana K. Poku, Alan Whiteside and Bjorg Sandkjaer
ISBN 978 0 7546 4579 5

The Political Economy of AIDS in Africa
Edited by Nana K. Poku and Alan Whiteside
ISBN 978 0 7546 3897 1

The Politics of AIDS Denialism

South Africas Failure to Respond

PIETER FOURIE
Macquarie University, Australia
and
MELISSA MEYER
HIV/AIDS and the Media Project, South Africa

First published 2010 by Ashgate Publishing

Published 2016 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

Copyright 2010 Pieter Fourie and Melissa Meyer

Pieter Fourie and Melissa Meyer have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the authors of this work.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Fourie, Pieter, 1972-

The politics of AIDS denialism : South Africas failure to respond. -- (Global health)
1. AIDS (Disease)--South Africa--Epidemiology. 2. AIDS (Disease)--Government policy--South Africa--History. 3. AIDS (Disease)--Political aspects--South Africa. 4. AIDS (Disease)--Social aspects--South Africa.
I. Title II. Series III. Meyer, Melissa.
362.1'96979200968-dc22

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fourie, Pieter, 1972-

The politics of AIDS denialism : South Africas failure to respond / by Pieter Fourie and Melissa Meyer.

p. ; cm. -- (Global health)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4094-0405-7 (hbk) 1. AIDS (Disease)--Government policy--South Africa. 2. Denial (Psychology)--South Africa. I. Meyer, Melissa, 1985- II. Title. III. Series: Global health. [DNLM: 1. HIV Infections--South Africa. 2. Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome--South Africa. 3. Health Policy--South Africa. WC 503 F775p 2010]

RA643.86.S6F683 2010

362.196'979200968--dc22

2010020478

ISBN 9781409404057 (hbk)
ISBN 9781315554419 (ebk)

Contents

List of Figures

List of Tables

Foreword

As Adam Smith observed, We desire both to be respectable and to be respected. The power of denial is equally strong. Both tendencies encourage people to ignore the damage caused by their social actions and to develop elaborate stories justifying their privileges. Both give rise to the pride that, like fear, lies behind cultural racism. They help to explain why the adage men make history but do not know the history they make is true.

This year marks the start of the third decade of HIV and AIDS three decades in which the epidemic has taken hold and three decades in which the response of both civil society and government has been marked by denial, inaction and muddled policies and responses. The South African epidemic has been one of the most studied and researched, and placed under a scrutiny as no other epidemic on the continent or throughout the world.

What drives this fascination and frustration with the South Africa HIV and AIDS epidemics? Why is the South African epidemic and the response to it such a source of research and investigation? Is it because of the magnitude of the numbers infected and dying or because this is seen to be an exceptional epidemic, unfolding in an exceptional country. How is it possible that in 1990, HIV prevalence among antenatal clinic attendees (women 1549 years) was less than 1 per cent and yet by 2008 it has reached 29.3 per cent? What explains the response of the governments in the last two decades to this epidemic as it has unfolded or the response of the health sector, the education sector and civil society.

South Africa is still, 30 years on, experiencing one of the most serious HIV/AIDS epidemics in the world. At the same time, the country has developed one of the most serious and fascinating responses to HIV and AIDS. In many ways South Africa was expected to succeed in finding ways to combat HIV and AIDS under exceptional circumstances in much the same way that it managed to defeat apartheid under exceptional circumstances. There was something about the Rainbow Nation that captured the imagination of the world, and South Africans were expected to perform miracles in a range of social issues housing, education, service delivery, heath care including HIV and AIDS. South Africa was expected to succeed where other countries seemed to have failed.

South Africa and its AIDS epidemic is a bewildering mix of forward thinking progressive responses and equally bewildering inaction, stupidity and stalling. The country with one of the worst epidemics in the world has also some of the very best legislation to deal with the many complex issues the epidemic throws up. Many people are denied access to treatments through state inaction and inability to ensure adequate supplies. Many people do not have access to prevention measures that can enable them to make choices and yet South Africa has, in relation to HIV and AIDS, a very strong human rights culture. There exists an impressive range of activists who have forced changes in policy and response.

Through the years there has been the National AIDS Plan of 1994, the National Strategic Plans moving beyond 2011, which attempt to unite all government departments to act on the epidemic and to take the lead where their expertise is the most appropriate. Yet, parallel to this has been the policy to support curious theories of alternative medications, using combinations of food as treatment rather than drugs. While trying to get people to take HIV and AIDS seriously and change behaviour, calls were made against the provision of ARV treatments as being toxic and unsafe.

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