Your daily Selection of IRIN Africa PlusNews reports, 2/6/2007

[Guest guest]

U N I T E D N A T I O N S

Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN) -

[These reports do not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

CONTENT:

1 - SWAZILAND: The triumph over fear

1 - SWAZILAND: The triumph over fear

MBABANE, 6 February (PLUSNEWS) - In a remarkable reversal of perceptions about

AIDS, public testing by religious and business leaders is changing attitudes

towards both the disease and being tested for it.

As recently as two years ago, most Swazis believed that testing was necessary

only for those displaying symptoms of the disease, such as rapid weight loss.

Now, public testing is leading to a greater understanding of HIV/AIDS, which,

according to UNAIDS, infects 33.4 percent of the adult population - the world's

highest prevalence rate.

As part of an HIV/AIDS programme backed by the Swaziland Chamber of Commerce and

Industry and employer organisations, the South African-owned bank, Nedbank,

following in the footsteps of another South African corporate, Standard Bank,

invited local media to its Swaziland headquarters in the capital, Mbabane, last

week, to see banking executives and workers taking HIV tests. It was, according

to one corporate publicist, " the triumph over fear. " The results remain

confidential.

Five years ago, when one of the country's largest manufacturing companies based

at Matsapha, an industrial site 30km east of Mbabane, proposed that workers have

private and confidential HIV testing, workers went on strike. The company's HIV

testing proposal was made in response to high absenteeism rates, blamed on

illness, and an inordinate death rate among company employees, blamed on

HIV/AIDS. The workers refused to take tests, because they said the factory would

be come known as " the AIDS place " .

The behavioural change towards testing is being seen as a watershed moment by

health activists involved in the fight against the disease.

" This is a positive development, a real trend we are seeing. It shows that

stigmatisation against people living with HIV and AIDS may be lessening. Before,

people were afraid to get tested out of worry that others would think they had

AIDS, " Thembi Khoza, a volunteer counsellor and test administrator at Matsapha,

told IRIN/PlusNews.

" I think there is a link between people's willingness to undergo HIV testing,

even publicly, and some even announcing their results publicly, and the decline

we are starting to see in the infection numbers. People are more aware; they

want to take care of themselves, " Khoza said.

In another display of public testing this week, 20 pastors took HIV tests,

making front-page news in a country where HIV/AIDS has long been linked with

sexual promiscuity.

" One reason people were afraid to admit to being HIV positive, or feared even

testing, was that they'd be blamed for loose morals: they were treated as

sinners. Now so many people are infected - husbands and wives, children born

HIV-positive - it's hard to be so condemning, " said Khumalo of the Manzini

Dioceses HIV/AIDS Programme, located in Manzini, the country's commercial hub.

The pastors have also vowed to publicly reveal their HIV status, whatever it

might be, at the launch in April of the Swaziland Network for Religious Leaders

Living with HIV, a new nongovernmental organisation.

" The admission by church leaders that they have HIV will really be a blow to

stigmatisation, " said Khoza. According to reports by UNAIDS, people believed to

be HIV-positive had been ostracised by some church congregations.

Bongani Langa, coordinator of the National Church Forum, an umbrella body for

Christian congregations, said 156 Swazi church leaders had received training in

HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, and 70 percent of them had undergone

voluntary HIV tests.

Khumalo believed the greater availability of antiretroviral drugs was also

changing attitudes towards testing. " People were told that AIDS was a death

sentence; there used to be fear. People thought, 'What's the use? I don't want

to know if I'm going to die'. There's still no cure, but you can live a long

life with the new medicines - that's made a difference. "

jh/go/he/oa

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Subscriber: AIDS treatments

[Guest guest]

U N I T E D N A T I O N S

Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN) -

[These reports do not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

CONTENT:

1 - SWAZILAND: The triumph over fear

1 - SWAZILAND: The triumph over fear

MBABANE, 6 February (PLUSNEWS) - In a remarkable reversal of perceptions about

AIDS, public testing by religious and business leaders is changing attitudes

towards both the disease and being tested for it.

As recently as two years ago, most Swazis believed that testing was necessary

only for those displaying symptoms of the disease, such as rapid weight loss.

Now, public testing is leading to a greater understanding of HIV/AIDS, which,

according to UNAIDS, infects 33.4 percent of the adult population - the world's

highest prevalence rate.

As part of an HIV/AIDS programme backed by the Swaziland Chamber of Commerce and

Industry and employer organisations, the South African-owned bank, Nedbank,

following in the footsteps of another South African corporate, Standard Bank,

invited local media to its Swaziland headquarters in the capital, Mbabane, last

week, to see banking executives and workers taking HIV tests. It was, according

to one corporate publicist, " the triumph over fear. " The results remain

confidential.

Five years ago, when one of the country's largest manufacturing companies based

at Matsapha, an industrial site 30km east of Mbabane, proposed that workers have

private and confidential HIV testing, workers went on strike. The company's HIV

testing proposal was made in response to high absenteeism rates, blamed on

illness, and an inordinate death rate among company employees, blamed on

HIV/AIDS. The workers refused to take tests, because they said the factory would

be come known as " the AIDS place " .

The behavioural change towards testing is being seen as a watershed moment by

health activists involved in the fight against the disease.

" This is a positive development, a real trend we are seeing. It shows that

stigmatisation against people living with HIV and AIDS may be lessening. Before,

people were afraid to get tested out of worry that others would think they had

AIDS, " Thembi Khoza, a volunteer counsellor and test administrator at Matsapha,

told IRIN/PlusNews.

" I think there is a link between people's willingness to undergo HIV testing,

even publicly, and some even announcing their results publicly, and the decline

we are starting to see in the infection numbers. People are more aware; they

want to take care of themselves, " Khoza said.

In another display of public testing this week, 20 pastors took HIV tests,

making front-page news in a country where HIV/AIDS has long been linked with

sexual promiscuity.

" One reason people were afraid to admit to being HIV positive, or feared even

testing, was that they'd be blamed for loose morals: they were treated as

sinners. Now so many people are infected - husbands and wives, children born

HIV-positive - it's hard to be so condemning, " said Khumalo of the Manzini

Dioceses HIV/AIDS Programme, located in Manzini, the country's commercial hub.

The pastors have also vowed to publicly reveal their HIV status, whatever it

might be, at the launch in April of the Swaziland Network for Religious Leaders

Living with HIV, a new nongovernmental organisation.

" The admission by church leaders that they have HIV will really be a blow to

stigmatisation, " said Khoza. According to reports by UNAIDS, people believed to

be HIV-positive had been ostracised by some church congregations.

Bongani Langa, coordinator of the National Church Forum, an umbrella body for

Christian congregations, said 156 Swazi church leaders had received training in

HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, and 70 percent of them had undergone

voluntary HIV tests.

Khumalo believed the greater availability of antiretroviral drugs was also

changing attitudes towards testing. " People were told that AIDS was a death

sentence; there used to be fear. People thought, 'What's the use? I don't want

to know if I'm going to die'. There's still no cure, but you can live a long

life with the new medicines - that's made a difference. "

jh/go/he/oa

[ENDS]

This is non-reply e-mail. Please do not hesitate to contact us at

Mail@....

Principal donors: IRIN is generously supported by Australia, Canada, Denmark,

ECHO, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and

the United States of America. For more information, go to:

http://www.IRINnews.org/donors

[This item comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian news and information

service, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its

agencies. All IRIN material may be reposted or reprinted free-of-charge; refer

to the copyright page (Http://www.irinnews.org/copyright ) for conditions of

use. IRIN is a project of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian

Affairs.]

PLUSNEWS

Tel: +27 11 895-1900

Fax: +27 11 784-6759

Email: Mail@...

To make changes to or cancel your subscription visit:

http://www.irinnews.org/subscriptions

Subscriber: AIDS treatments