South African president meets Gates on HIV/AIDS
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South African President Jacob Zuma met with American businessman Bill Gates to discuss issues relating to the country's fight against HIV/AIDS, the South African Press Association cited the Presidency as saying on Thursday.
In talks held Wednesday at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, they discussed the need to scale up the prevention of HIV/AIDS, the importance of the prevention of mother to child transmission of the virus, as well as the need to look at male circumcision as a means of prevention, said spokesman Vincent Magwenya.
On the issue of circumcision, Zuma indicated that the matter was being looked into but that it needed to be communicated carefully to avoid giving an impression that circumcised males were immune to HIV.
"Mr Gates briefed the President about Pre-exposure Prophylaxis, a new initiative which proposes to test everyone and start all those that are positive on ARVs regardless of CD4 count,' said Magwenya.
"Other matters included strengthening the management of HIV programs, especially the use of global funds, introducing business approaches to HIV prevention programs, as the Gates Foundation runs such programs in India at present for example."
Gates later met with Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, in his capacity as chairperson of the SA National AIDS Council, to continue discussions related to the country's HIV/AID problem.
