By Fran Blandy
The government has not over-emphasised nutrition in the fight against HIV and Aids, health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said on Friday.
"There is this notion that if you have not treated patients with ARVs (antiretrovirals) then you have not done anything," the health minister said, challenging journalists to understand the government's "balanced" approach to HIV and Aids.
Tshabalala-Msimang and her director-general Thamsanqa Mseleku addressed the Johannesburg Press Club in an attempt to "allay fears" around the government's comprehensive plan on HIV and Aids.
This comes after South Africa's Aids policies were blasted by speakers - including the UN's African envoy on HIV and Aids Stephen Lewis - at the International Aids Conference in Toronto last week.
"The problem is you have repeated a lie to the point that you believe it yourself," Mseleku said, on the belief that government over-emphasised nutrition.
"The minister has never said garlic and lemon are better than apples, bananas and spinach."
Tshabalala-Msimang's controversial promotion of the use of garlic and beetroot in fighting HIV and Aids and the South African exhibition openly displaying these items were a point of contention at the conference.
"I am not sucking these things (alternative medicines) out of my thumb," the minister said, adding it would not be correct for her to promote alternatives which had no merit.
Tshabalala-Msimang said Indian and Chinese medicines had received more recognition than African traditional medicines, which an estimated 80 percent of South Africans used.
"So we said, let us encourage research and development of these medicines and create an appropriate regulatory environment for them," she said.
A presidential task team on African traditional medicines would be launched soon.
"There is this notion that traditional medicine is some quack thing practised by primitive people... unfortunately 80 percent of our people don't care about 'scientifically proven'," said Tshabalala-Msimang.
"We cannot negate what we are, what our people are. Our duty as government is to... put in resources to make sure these medicines work."
The minister emphasised the importance of giving people choices, saying she would be misleading people if she only mentioned ARVs.
With a population which has high levels of micronutrient deficiencies caused by food insecurity, as well as health system challenges meant adopting a model which focused exclusively on ARV therapy would not solve the problem, said Tshabalala-Msimang.
Mseleku said an emphasis on nutrition was also a strategy to ensure the health system could cope, as the challenges faced by the health system such as lack of capacity and human resources were "not peculiar to HIV/Aids".
Accusations that government was not responding fast enough could also be pinned on an incapacitated health system, he said.
"We have to have a system to follow each and every individual (on ARVs)."
There were growing numbers of patients who had become resistant to the first line of ARV treatment, and it would cost the government billions to start rolling out second-line treatment.
This, said Mseleku, was why it was "critical" to ensure people did not reach a CD4 count of below 200, by promoting a healthy lifestyle.
Despite calls from activists and political parties that she resign, the minister said she had not considered it.
"I don't appoint myself, I get appointed by the president." - Sapa