World AIDS Day: South Africa to treat all HIV positive children

Johannesburg - South African President Jacob Zuma, during his World AIDS Day speech, announced that South Africa would provide treatment for all HIV-positive children, a dramatic step forward for a country with the world's highest rate of people diagnosed as HIV positive.

Mr. Zuma's pledge marks a departure from the policies of his predecessor, President Thabo Mbeki, who disputed the scientific evidence linking HIV with AIDS, and who actively discouraged the rollout of antiretroviral treatments to help AIDS patients live longer, more productive lives.

Speaking to an enthusiastic crowd in the nation's capital in Tshwane (Pretoria), Zuma compared the fight against AIDS with the struggle for freedom against the white-racist rule of apartheid.

"That time has now come in our struggle to overcome AIDS," Zuma said. "Let us declare now, as we declared then, that we shall not submit." To read the full article, click here.

In an amazing co-incidence, we managed to start our short unit on HIV on World AIDS Day.

Today we focused on the structure of HIV as well as its life cycle. Click here to see the video we watched in class on the life cycle of HIV.

AIDS clock