The top U.S.
health official praised South Africa's new national AIDS
plan on Sunday in Johannesburg, but sidestepped questions
about the dismissal of a deputy minister seen as a
driving force behind the country's program.
South Africa's
five-year plan, launched earlier this year, aims to reduce
the number of new HIV infections and to extend treatment to
80 percent of those with AIDS by 2011.
South Africa
''has constructed a good plan,'' Mike Leavitt, the U.S.
secretary of health and human services, said at the start of
his visit. ''Now it must be executed in a way that
makes good on the prospects it offers and the hope it
can provide.''
Nearly 1,000
people die of AIDS each day in South Africa and an estimated
1,400 are newly infected with the virus that causes the
disease. The government has said it is concerned about
the increasing costs of anti-retroviral drugs.
Leavitt was on a
four-nation tour to highlight U.S. health care programs
in Africa, with a focus on HIV/AIDS and malaria. His visit
follows President Bush's call to Congress to double
the initial $15 billion funding of the President's
Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR.
The program helps
provide treatment for 1.1 million people worldwide,
with more than a million in Africa. But it has been
criticized for emphasizing abstinence and fidelity
over the use of condoms in its prevention efforts.
The U.S. has
invested $600 million this year in South Africa, where an
estimated 5.4 million people are infected with the AIDS
virus.
There is concern
the government's plan could be undermined after South
African President Thabo Mbeki -- who has long been
accused of playing down the AIDS epidemic --
fired Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge as deputy health
minister.
Madlala-Routledge
had won widespread praise for her work in drawing up
the new plan. Her boss, Health Minister Manto
Tshabalala-Msimang, has been seen as a destructive
force because she has questioned the efficacy of AIDS
drugs and instead promoted beets and garlic as a remedy.
Mbeki said he
fired Madlala-Routledge because she was incapable of
working as part of a team.
Leavitt would not
comment on the dismissal, but warned that ''any country
that does not aggressively move'' to address the epidemic
''will bear the unhappy results.''
Briefing
reporters, he said he would not be meeting with
Tshabalala-Msimang as he had been informed she would be out
of the country, and instead would meet with the
minister for social development and officials from the
health department.
Leavitt will be
in South Africa until Aug. 21 before traveling to
Mozambique, Tanzania and Rwanda. (Celean Jacobson, AP)
