Revamped South African National AIDS Council begins work reviewing national plan

South Africa "recently unveiled" a "newly reformed" South African National AIDS Council (SANAC), "coinciding with the announcement that the country has achieved universal access to HIV treatment," PlusNews reports. Responding to a 2010 review of the body, SANAC "will now hold a new, annual meeting comprised of representatives from the research community, labor unions and people living with HIV," at which "participants will discuss major policy issues and review progress on the country's current national plan to address the twin epidemics of HIV and tuberculosis," according to the news service.

At a recent meeting, "SANAC announced new figures showing that two million South Africans are now on antiretrovirals; this figure covers about 80 percent of those estimated to need treatment in the country, surpassing the country's 2006 universal access target, according to a UNAIDS report," PlusNews writes, noting the country "must now ramp-up prevention, new SANAC CEO Fareed Abdullah said." South African Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, who chairs SANAC, said the body would be strengthening "Provincial Councils on AIDS to better monitor the provincial responses," the news service states (10/9).