Closing the 13th International AIDS Conference today, Nelson Mandela urged scientists to move beyond their concerns about South Africa's president and to focus on combating the epidemic that is raging across the African continent. In a speech punctuated by repeated applause, Mr. Mandela said the world could not afford to be distracted by the furor surrounding President Thabo Mbeki, his successor, who has questioned whether H.I.V. causes AIDS.
Mr. Mandela did not clarify Mr. Mbeki's views on the subject, but told his audience that Mr. Mbeki was committed to fighting the sickness in South Africa, the country with the largest number of people infected with the AIDS virus, 4.2 million. ''So much unnecessary attention around this conference had been directed toward a dispute that is unintentionally distracting from the real life-and-death issues we are confronted with as a country, a region, a continent and a world,'' said Mr. Mandela, who handed over the reigns of power to Mr. Mbeki one year ago. ''In the face of the grave threat posed by H.I.V./AIDS, we have to rise above our differences and combine our efforts to save our people,'' he said. ''History will judge us harshly if we fail to do so, and right now.''
The speech marked the end of the first international AIDS conference to be held in a developing country. About 34 million people, most of them in Africa, are infected with H.I.V. And this week, scientists debated the best ways to battle the scourge, finding hope in studies that suggest circumcision reduces the risk of infection and disappointment in a report that questions the long-term benefit of a drug intended to protect newborns from the virus. But the scientific developments announced here were almost overshadowed by the controversy surrounding Mr. Mbeki. He addressed the conference once, in the opening speech on Sunday, when he singled out extreme poverty, rather than AIDS, as the biggest killer in Africa.
But in the corridors and conference halls at the convention center here, the president dominated conversations nearly as much as the talk about future vaccines. Last week, the scientific magazine Nature published a declaration signed by 5,000 scientists from around the world who described the link between H.I.V. and AIDS as ''clear-cut, exhaustive and unambiguous.'' And this week, in panel after panel, scientists and activists criticized Mr. Mbeki, who stirred the debate by consulting two American researchers who argue that poverty and malnutrition, not H.I.V., cause AIDS. No one disputes the link between poverty and AIDS, which is well established. And government officials here emphasize that Mr. Mbeki has never said H.I.V. did not cause AIDS.
But researchers fear that Mr. Mbeki's heavy emphasis on poverty and his talks with AIDS dissidents may fuel confusion among ordinary people who may assume they can engage in risky sexual behavior because the president has raised questions about H.I.V. ''I was disappointed, to put it bluntly,'' Roy Anderson, a prominent AIDS researcher, said of Mr. Mbeki's speech. ''In South Africa, it's really such an acute problem.''
The government quickly lashed back. Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang dismissed the criticism and accused the media of distorting Mr. Mbeki's message. She insisted that the president was committed to fighting the disease by encouraging safe sex and by sponsoring research on drug therapies and a possible vaccine. ''Why should he deny something he has not said?'' she asked.
Today, Mr. Mandela also defended Mr. Mbeki. He called him ''a man of great intellect'' who ''continues to place this issue on the top of the national and continental agenda.'' Mr. Mandela acknowledged that the government, under his leadership and Mr. Mbeki's, had fallen short in efforts to fight the disease. Scientists and AIDS activists have accused South Africa of a lack of leadership in combating the epidemic. In 1993, H.I.V. infected 4 percent of South Africa's adult population. Now the figure is 20 percent. ''He will, with me, be the first to concede that much more remains to be done,'' Mr. Mandela said. ''I do not doubt for one moment that he will proceed to tackle this task with the resolve and dedication he is known for.''
Mr. Mandela did differ with Mr. Mbeki on some points. For instance, he emphasized his reluctance to engage in the scientific debate, saying he lacked adequate knowledge to contribute seriously. And while Mr. Mbeki has questioned the safety of AIDS drugs, Mr. Mandela stressed the urgency of using them to reduce the transmission of the virus from mothers to newborns, saying such measures ''have been proven to be essential.''
Source: New York Times
