HEARD News

Message from HEARD's Director

It is hard to believe that the first two months of 2010 have already fled past. This is the year when South Africa hosts the Soccer World Cup, when the AIDS community gathers in Vienna, and when hopefully we address some of the big issues in responding to the epidemic.

South Africa is abuzz with the Soccer World Cup fever. I think the event will be a success although it is clear that Fifa talked it up to be a bit bigger than it will be. Durban has a fantastic new stadium. On a practical level it means HEARD cannot plan events in June and July. Other than that we hope that it will be a success, showcase South Africa and give everyone an opportunity to celebrate.

My year began with a trip to London to participate in the aids2031 and Lancet review meeting. There are five articles coming out of the aids2031 research that should be published in the Lancet. The project has actually produced a wealth of information which can be accessed on their website here www.aids2031.org. The paper I was most heavily involved in reviewing was on social drivers. This is critical and when linked with the recent UN modes of transmissions studies gives a good idea of what is underlying the epidemic and why it is so serious in southern Africa.

I also had the pleasure of travelling to Swaziland at the same time as Michel Sidibé, the Executive Director of UNAIDS. I flew in and out on the same plane as he did, which was great as we had a chance to talk.

Swaziland is in a desperate situation and the big news that I picked up is that the countries of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), Swaziland, Lesotho, Namibia and Botswana are facing a bleak future as revenue is about to diminish greatly. This has been coming for a long time and all of the countries have been aware of it but most are choosing to ignore what is going on. I think there is the hope that somehow the problem will be solved by someone somewhere. An article in the Mail & Guardian of a couple of weeks ago which looked at what is going on and is worth repeating is that 90% of budget revenue is derived from SACU in Lesotho, 89% in Swaziland, 50% in Namibia and 35% in Botswana. Thirty six percent of Lesotho's GDP is from SACU. We urgently need to be thinking about what this means for HIV/AIDS. Perhaps a meeting on it would be appropriate very soon and it certainly would be good to have this with the SADC Technical Working Group.

The other big news from the region would be the increasing interest in antiretroviral therapy as prevention although this is not really regionally driven but is rather higher on the agendas of northern activists and scientists. Of more concern is the likely increase in the point in which you put people on treatment, moving from 200 to 350 CD4 cells per mml. This will have consequences for services and expense and needs to be thought through.

A particular challenge we face has been the weather. In February we had one of the worst thunder, lightening and rainstorms I have ever experienced in my life. Our computers and network have surge protectors, but when your building is hit directly there is actually very little you can do about it and that's what happened to us. It meant that we lost power and one of the networks affecting about half the staff was down for 48 hours whilst they tried to put it together again. An Act of God? Well we lost power but it was fixable. There were many people in Durban whose homes were destroyed and some who lost their lives.

2010 promises to be an exciting year for HEARD and I look forward to working with our friends, donors and with the staff in making progress in responding to HIV/AIDS over the course of the year.

This letter ends on a very sad note. On 18 February one of our HEARD staff members passed away in hospital. Sibonakaliso Radebe, aka Sbo had been working with HEARD in various roles since 2003. He was a much appreciated member of the team who was engaged in the management of field research. His presence will be severely missed and we convey our sincere sympathy and condolences to his family and friends.