South African minister issues appeal on AIDS vaccine
By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
South Africa's new health minister has appealed to scientists to intensify efforts to find an AIDS vaccine amid widespread gloom over recent research setbacks.
Health Minister Barbara Hogan said government policies over the past ten years had failed. Her speech Monday marked a radical break in policy from her predecessor Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, who downplayed the seriousness of the epidemic.
Hogan told an international AIDS vaccine conference that countries like South Africa - where life expectancy has fallen to 52 - desperately need scientists to come up with a weapon against HIV.
Hogan said that more than half of all public hospital admissions are AIDS-related and more than one quarter of the national health budget goes to fighting the disease.
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