Hon Deputy Speaker, members of the House, a very good afternoon to you. It gives me great pleasure to participate in a debate on World Aids Day, which is commemorated annually on 1 December. This year's national event will be held in KwaZakhele, Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality. I will return to the details of this later.
The fight against HIV and Aids is not an event, but a concerted effort by all sectors of society. It is an everyday battle which must be fought by each and every one of us - and we have been fighting this battle for years. You know very well that the first identified case was 30 years ago in America. And without treatment for a long time, we only had prevention as a means of dealing with this epidemic. However, since 1992, we have had antiretroviral drugs to try to treat and control the symptoms of HIV and Aids. Of course, since then many new drugs have been developed, which resulted in HIV/Aids becoming a chronic disease, as now many people can live normal lives if treatment is started early in the course of the progression of the disease.
With advances in medicine, both with regard to diagnosis and treatment, the key questions are: Are we seeing a reduction in the number of new cases of HIV, and are people living longer? The global answer to these questions can be found in the 2011 Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, UNAids, World Aids Day report on HIV/Aids, which was released on Monday 21 November. It made international and local headlines. There were two headlines that caught my attention. The first headline was in the Cape Argus of 21 November. It said: "World coming to grips with the virus - UNAids". The second headline was in the Pretoria News of 22 November, which said: "Aids is on the retreat and can be beaten, suggests a report on the epidemic."
Hon Deputy Speaker, there is so much noise I can't hear myself speak.