International Aids day will be celebrated in South Africa in a noticeably different atmosphere this year following signs of a dramatic turnaround in official government policy towards the spread of HIV/Aids in the country. After years of denial and courting Aids dissidents, which earned South Africa pariah status in international health circles, leading members of President Thabo Mbeki’s government have begun to indicate a wholesale shift in attitude.

South Africa suffers from one of the highest levels of HIV/Aids infections in the world. Rates of infection spiralled from 1 per cent of the population in 1990 to 11 per cent last year. At least 5.54m South Africans are believed to be infected with the Aids virus and the southern African HIV Clinicians Society estimates that, by 2011, 3.3m South Africans will be in need of antiretroviral therapy. Between 1997 and 2004 death rates from Aids-related diseases more than tripled for women between the ages of 20 and 39 and doubled for men aged between 30 and 44.