South African government plan aims to eliminate new HIV, TB infections within 20 years

The South African "government plans to bring down new HIV infection rates to zero in the next 20 years, Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe said on Saturday" at a World Tuberculosis (TB) Day event at the Goldfields mine in Carletonville, Gauteng, SAPA/Independent Online reports. "He said the National Strategic Plan for HIV, TB and sexually transmitted infections (STI) would aim [to] eliminat[e] new HIV and TB infections, mother-to-child HIV infections, and have zero preventable deaths as well as discrimination associated with" HIV and TB, according to the news agency (3/26). Motlanthe also "launched a plan to diagnose tuberculosis in the country's gold mines, where the disease's incidence is the highest in the world," Agence France-Presse writes, adding, "Motlanthe said the goal was to 'ensure that all mine workers, particularly in the gold mining sector, are screened and tested for TB and HIV over the next 12 months'" (2/24).