By Andrew Quinn
Leading South African Aids campaigner Zackie Achmat said on Monday he would end his embargo and begin taking life-saving anti-retroviral drugs because his death would not help the struggle for broader treatment.
Achmat - whose struggle with HIV has become symbolic for millions of South Africans facing the disease without medication - led hundreds of protesters outside the first national Aids conference to demand government action on the drugs.
"I decided to take my medicines," Achmat said to a roar from the crowd, which had gathered to protest against what they said was a "war" mounted on HIV-positive people by President Thabo Mbeki and Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang.
South Africa has about 4,7 million people infected with HIV, more than any other country in the world, but the government has resisted providing anti-retroviral drugs in public hospitals.
Achmat, a veteran anti-apartheid and gay rights activist who founded the Aids pressure group Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), was formally asked by the group to start HIV treatment at its national congress in Durban over the weekend.
Often described by the media as the most effective South African political activist since anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela, Achmat said he had agreed to take the drugs because healthy people were needed to fight the government.
"The most important reason is that we are not going to let Thabo (Mbeki) and Manto (Tshabalala-Msimang) kill people," Achmat said. "Hang in there, we will win, we will get medicines."
Mbeki's government has resisted calls to introduce anti-retrovirals into the public sector, saying they are expensive, potentially toxic and difficult to take.
The government has said it is studying various plans to gradually roll out the drugs, but insists that priority must be given to improving basic health care.
Activists say the delay in implementing a national Aids treatment strategy is costing 600 South African lives a day.
Achmat's decision to refuse anti-retrovirals, which are only available through private health care, caused his health to deteriorate sharply in 2001 and 2002 - but he said he could not take the drugs while most South Africans were denied them.