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EPIDEMICS
Swazi MP retracts statement to brand HIV-positive people

Botswana circumcision drive will prevent HIV infections: report
The process of circumcising nearly half a million males in Botswana by 2012 will prevent almost 70,000 new HIV infections by 2025, a report published on Thursday said. "Scaling up safe male circumcision has the potential to reduce the impact of HIV/AIDS in Botswana significantly," said a report published in the International AIDS Society journal 2009. Researchers estimated that the process could cost the state about 47 million dollars (just under 34 million euros). The report boosted government's newly launched campaign to circumcise 460,000 men, over the five years, in a bid to curb the spread of the disease. The health ministry said the initiative was prompted by a series of studies which found that circumcised men were two to three times less likely to contract HIV. Government is currently running television and radio campaigns to encourage men to visit clinics for safe circumcision procedures. According to a UNAIDS report, HIV prevalence among pregnant women in Botswana was last measured at 43 percent in 2003. The rapid spread of HIV and AIDS once threatened the survival of the approximately two million people of the land-locked southern African country, until the introduction of antiretroviral drugs in 2003.
by Staff Writers
 Johannesburg (AFP) May 28, 2009
 A Swaziland MP who last week suggested that HIV positive people be branded on the buttocks Thursday distanced himself from the statement, saying he was misquoted by the media.

An apologetic Timothy Myeni told reporters in Johannesburg that he had not thought through his posing of "a mark" for HIV-positive Swazis last week at a workshop on ways of fighting the scourge in the small mountain kingdom.

"I want to disassociate myself from the statement that has been doing rounds in the media saying I suggested that people with HIV should be branded. That is not what I said," said Myeni, who also sings with a popular gospel group.

"I posed a question to the workshop facilitator saying maybe those who have been found with the virus must have a mark so that they can get quick medical attention."

Myeni added that he had immediately retracted his question after it was shot down by workshop participants.

The widely-reported comments sparked an uproar in Swaziland, one of the world's poorest nations with the highest HIV prevalence in the world under the rule of Africa's last absolute monarch King Mswati III.

"I am very sorry for the damage that has been caused by the statement, I never imagined that it will be interpreted this way," added Miyeni.

South African lobby group Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) said it will assist Swaziland in providing accurate HIV/AIDS information to stop the spread of ill-informed misconceptions.

"We were very dismayed by Myeni's remarks, as a result we are offering our services in that country to teach parliamentarians about the disease," said Bheki Khoza, the group's co-ordinator.

The group urged Myeni to go back to the people of Swaziland and apologise.

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