Treatment Action Campaign
From Freepedia
The Treatment Action Campaign is a South African grassroots pressure group which was founded by Zackie Achmat, an HIV-positive activist who refused anti-retroviral treatment (ARVs) until they were universally available. He eventually began to take ARV's after a heart attack in 2004, when it became clear he would quickly die without treatment. At that time, the government was soon to capitulate to demands to implement nationwide treatment. ARV's began to be available at a national level in public hospitals in March 2004, yet the rollout is still incomplete.
TAC continues to protest and sue the government (working with the AIDS Law Project) as needed to encourage the rollout.
The Treatment Action Campaign was launched on 10 December 1998, International Human Rights Day. Its main objective is to campaign for greater access to HIV treatment for all South Africans, by raising public awareness and understanding about issues surrounding the availability, affordability and use of HIV treatments. TAC has been noted for using protest techniques from the anti-apartheid movement for Aids activism. Achmat is himself an ANC member and an ANC activist during the apartheid struggle.
The TAC sued the South African government for not ensuring that mother-to-child-transmission (MTCT) prevention was available to pregnant mothers. It won and the government was ordered to provide MTCT programs in public clinics. Ironically, TAC also assisted the government by defending it in the case brought against the government by the pharmaceutical industry. TAC entered the case as an amicus curiae, submitting a brief in favour of the government's position.
Treatment Action Campaign has been a key player in discrediting the so-called "denialist" view of AIDS that questions the link between HIV and Aids, and the very existence of Aids. President Thabo Mbeki has shown support for such a view, and at various times has made space for its proponents on official government panels. Critics, such as TAC, hold that this exaggerates the relative position of the denialist camp, which remains very much a fringe perspective. Recently, a German vitamin-maker named Matthias Rath has publicly questioned the effectiveness of HIV medicines in advertisements in South African newspapers. Rath claims that his nutritional products are effective against HIV/AIDS. TAC successfully pursued retractions and corrections from the newspapers, and Rath was censured by the South African media control body.
The TAC has received widespread support from many sectors of South African society, including Supreme Court Justice Edwin Cameron, former President Nelson Mandela, Medecins Sans Frontiers, church groups, and many of the powerful South African trade unions, such as COSATU.
TAC Officials
- Chairperson - Zackie Achmat
- Vice-Chairperson - Mandla Majola
- National Secretary - Sipho Mthathi
- National Manager - Nathan Geffen
- National Executive Secretary - Rukia Cornelius
- National Women's Coordinator - Nonkosi Khumalo
