EASTERN Cape non-profit organisations are optimistic about President Jacob Zuma’s bold new plan to fight Aids, with many HIV-positive people set to get anti-retrovirals a lot earlier than previously.

Zuma announced at a World Aids Day commemoration ceremony in Pretoria yesterday that all HIV-positive children under one year old would receive treatment.

South Africa, with the world’s highest HIV rate, will roll out life- prolonging anti-retrovirals to significantly more people next year.

Zuma announced a new era in the approach to Aids in the country where at least 5,7 million people are infected with HIV and 1000 people die every day.

“Let there be no more shame, no more blame, no more discrimination and no more stigma. Let the politicisation and endless debates about HIV/Aids stop,” Zuma said.

People living with HIV/Aids will soon be able to get ARVs when their CD4 count drops to 350 instead of having to wait until it plummets below 200.

Zuma said all parents and all pregnant HIV-positive women with CD4 counts of 350, or with symptoms regardless of their CD4 count, “will have access to treatment”.

To loud applause, he said tuberculosis and HIV/Aids would also be treated in one centre, instead of patients having to travel to different centres, adding the new measures would come into effect on April 1.

Eastern Cape Aids Council chief executive Rev Lulama Ntshingwa said: “We are very excited about this plan. To us this means we will be able to reach our target of getting 80% of infected people on treatment by 2011.”

“Our target for this financial year was for 100000 people to get treatment. By the end of October we had about 88000,” he said.

He felt Zuma’s move would “encourage people to go and test... knowing very well that if they test positive they will get treatment”.

The provincial co-ordinator of the National Association of People Living with HIV and Aids, Mluleki Zazini, said the organisation appreciated “what Zuma has said”.

However, he said the treatment ought to go with nutritional support because “no one can take treatment on an empty stomach. Also transportation of treatment for people who live in deep rural areas should be considered.”

Treatment Action Campaign provincial chairman (Eastern Cape) Portia Ngcaba said she saluted Zuma for “talking as a person who understands the science of HIV/Aids”. “It’s scientifically proven that if you take ARVs when your CD4 count is 350, there’s a guarantee that your life will be prolonged,” said the outgoing TAC provincial co-ordinator.

Regarding whether what Zuma had promised could be realised, Ngcaba said: “The leadership he showed today leaves no doubt.

“We are all confident these guidelines will be effected in April 2010, just like the president said.”

According to the Actuarial Society of South Africa’s demographic and Aids model, the Eastern Cape is the province with the third highest rate of new infections and deaths due to HIV/Aids illnesses.

About 224 are infected in the province every day, with about 126 deaths a day.

About 21% of people between the ages of 20 and 64 in the Eastern Cape have HIV/Aids and there have been 81758 new HIV infections already this year.

According to provincial Health Department spokesman Sizwe Kupelo, the HIV prevalence among women between the ages of 15 and 49 who received antenatal care last year decreased by more than 1% compared to 2007. The percentage last year was 27,6% and in 2007 it was 28,8%.

He said the province did not have statistics on the number of people who were HIV-positive. Instead they had an estimate based on the number of people who had gone for voluntary counselling and testing, and had tested positive.

“The reason that we cannot give the correct estimate is that some people who test positive repeat the test several times. We cannot say therefore that the number of positive tests represent the number of people who are positive in the province,” said Kupelo.

Between April last year and March this year about 79141 people had tested HIV-positive for the first time during tests conducted by the provincial Health Department.

Kupelo said the total number of people who went for testing in 2004 stood at 178000. Of these, 64000 were HIV-positive.

In 2005, 204000 people went for tests and 62000 were positive.

In 2006, 254000 went for tests and 69000 tested positive.

In 2007 191000 went for testing and 46000 tested positive.

In 2008 345000 went for testing and 79000 tested positive.