Hon Speaker, HIV continues to have a devastating impact on an estimated 34 million people across the world.
Whilst the number of new infections has increased globally, South Africa's estimated annual rate of new infections has dropped by a third in the past 10 years or so. This is indeed very positive and shows that we are beginning to turn the corner in our fight against the epidemic. But we still have a very long way to go. We now have to shift our focus towards longer-term strategies to ensure that we continue on the same positive path. There is now solid scientific evidence which proves that antiretroviral therapy can prevent new infections. We must continue to ensure that every single South African gets tested and placed on antiretroviral treatment if they are HIV-positive. This approach, combined with a focused strategy on behavioural change, must become the priority of government in our fight against the disease.
The absence of a central database results in skewed calculations of the actual number of annual infections and we still do not have that central registry or database in place. The Minister announced, earlier this year, that nearly 12 million South Africans have tested for HIV. The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, UNAids, has reported that there are an estimated 5,6 million people living with HIV in South Africa. But none of these figures are entirely reliable because people are double and triple testing in order to get a second and third opinion, and we still we do not have a system to detect this.
We are still not making a greater investment in prevention, and our public health care sector must be channelled to focus more attention on prevention. This recognition has to be the first step in building a healthier nation for the future. If we do not shift our focus to address behavioural changes in the fight against HIV/Aids, we will never achieve the UNAids vision of zero new infections, zero discrimination, and zero Aids-related deaths. I thank you. [Applause.]