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Report on the (PATAM) Conference held in Harare, Zimbabwe – 3-5 March 2004
Kubatana.net
March 08, 2004

Background on PATAM
PATAM is the acronym for the Pan African HIV/AIDS Treatment Action Movement, which was formed in Cape Town, South Africa in August 2002. PATAM is a social movement of over 80 individuals from 21 African countries who are dedicated to mobilising communities, political leaders, and all sectors of society to ensure access to anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment for all people infected with HIV/AIDS in Africa.

Introduction
The Harare PATAM Conference is the first regional conference and the theme of the conference was Scaling up Access to Treatment in Southern Africa; a way forward. The Conference was hosted by the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) of South Africa, Zimbabwe Activists on HIV and AIDS (ZAHA), Southern African HIV/AIDS Information Dissemination Service (SAFAIDS) and The Centre. The main objective of the conference was to provide at platform for activists throughout Africa to review some of the challenges and strategies they face in ensuring the universal access to anti-retroviral therapy and other essential services. The conference was also meant to share ideas and experiences of what has worked and what has not worked. Over 150 delegates from across Southern Africa were represented.

The Conference began with the observation of a minute of silence, in respect of all the people who had died because of the AIDS scourge.

The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Dr Elizabeth Xaba was scheduled to officially open the conference. However, she was not able to attend due other commitments, the delegates were told. However, some delegates felt that her absence and failure to send a representative to the conference was an indication of how uncaring the government was regards the plight of people infected with HIV/AIDS. In actual fact there was no single government representative. The delegates felt that the government was shunning them and their absence was a clear indication.

Bishop Trevor Manhanga officially opened the conference. In his speech Bishop Manhanga said he was not surprised that the conference was bereft of government representation. He informed the delegates that, "any government in Africa that does not make HIV/AIDS a priority must be voted out". He sighted a lack of concern and respect from the African leaders and gave an example of the absence of African leaders at the 1999 World Conference on AIDS held in Lusaka, Zambia-not even the President of Zambia?" Bishop Manhanga urged the activists to make HIV/AIDS an election issue and that " No government should be elected that does not have a solid workable plan on treatment for HIV/AIDS sufferers."

There were a good number of presentations and parallel workshops during the 3-day conference. One of the Aids activists at the conference was Chantinkha Nkhoma from Malawi, she facilitated the "creating an environment for openness". From the discussions that involved great participation from the participants, the major problem of people not being able to open up about their status was due to the stigma and discrimination. People living with AIDS are shunned by society as they are viewed to immoral, said one participant.

It was generally agreed that there should be incentives for people who disclose their status. For example they should have access to counselling and access to medicines. Participants also concurred that there was need to increase treatment literacy to the general public and to people who are also living with HIV/AIDS.

The role of the media was also under the spotlight. Luckson Chipare, Director of the Media Institute of Southern Africa facilitated the session. Participants in this session agreed that there was a need for the Media especially journalists to have joint training workshops with people living with AIDS. Most of the workshops that were meant to create awareness amongst journalists did not seem to be yielding any results. The joint workshops are meant to create an understanding between the journalists and people living with AIDS. The training workshops are also meant to be a platform for people to network with the media. People living with HIV/AIDS were urged to write their own stories for publication in the media once solid contacts have been created with the media.

One of the presentations that were made was the 3 by 5 initiative: Implications for Zimbabwe. Dr Francis Onyango from World Health Organisation made the presentation. According to Dr Onyango’s presentation, the 3 by 5 is a commitment of placing 3 million people lobbying with HIV/AIDS by the end of 2005. With reference to Zimbabwe, the 3 by 5 initiative is meant to provide treatment to about 260 000 people living with HIV/AIDS by 2005. One of the major implications of the 3 by 5 for Zimbabwe is the Human Resource factor. For 3 by 5 to be effective in Zimbabwe there is a need for resource people, like doctor’s and nurses whom will help monitor the initiative. Zimbabwe has been experiencing a large labour turnover in the health sector and this is likely to affect the effectiveness of the 3 by 5 initiative.

Dr CE Ndlovu also presented an overview of ARV treatment in Zimbabwe. Dr Ndlovu said for ARV treatment to be effective in Zimbabwe there was need to train health workers in HIV management, reduce the dependency on doctors to manage AIDS and to delegate some aspects of HIV/AIDS care to non doctors and non-health professionals. For example, there is a need to share the counselling burden with non-medical people. Dr Ndlovu also presented on the progress that had been achieved in the ARV treatment. Amongst some of the achievements is the National medical reference laboratory at Harare hospital was now equipped to perform CD4 counts, viral loads and resistance testing.

Vulnerable Groups and Access to Treatment was also one of the joint presentations by Keith Goddard of the Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ) together with David Fuamba from the Refugee Relief and Development Association in Cape Town, South Africa. David and Keith highlighted that some of the groups are vulnerable because on many reasons some which include poverty, culture, civil and political unrest and victim mentalities that they express. In an effort to avoid the vulnerable being the targets it was highlighted that there was need for developing strategies and action plans, monitoring progress of activities and ensuring the visibility of vulnerable groups in all campaigning.

One of the delegates who were expected to attend the Conference was Zackie Achmat. He was however not able to make the trip to Harare due to ill health. Zackie is on the forefront in the campaigning for wider access to treatment for the people of South Africa. Zackie has been living with HIV/AIDS for more than 10 years and has refused to take ARV’s until they are made available to everyone. Zackie set up the Treatment Action Campaign which is involved in the fight to ensure that people living with HIV/AIDS in South Africa have access to the ARV’s. Zackie has won numerous awards for his activism campaign and has been nominated for the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize.

Conclusion
The PATAM Conference was meant come up with strategies that would enable regional countries to speak with one voice on the issue of having access to cheaper drug prices and in helping create awareness on the people’s health campaign. A list of 6 working groups was created and these were tasked with coming up with strategies that could be used in the access to treatment campaigns.

In her closing remarks, Lois Lunga Executive director of Safaids advised all AIDS activists to use the election platform to lobby HIV/AIDS onto the political agenda.

Njogu Morgan, the international Co-ordinator for the Treatment Action Campaign thanked all present for their support and contributions. He then asked for a minute of silence as a tribute to those who had lost their lives due to the AIDS scourge.

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