South Africa is the country experiencing one of the most severe AIDS epidemics in the world. Currently, there are 33 million living with AIDS, 5.5 million of whom being located in South Africa. More than 6,500 new HIV infections occur daily worldwide, and about 1,000 of these in South Africa. Poverty, social instability and a lack of government action are just some of the factors behind these figures.

Given the circumstances, South Africa’s new Health Minister, Barbara Hogan, has called for a renewed global effort to find a vaccine for HIV, which further leads to AIDS.

“We know that HIV causes AIDS,” Hogan, who vowed to make AIDS a top priority as health minister, told an international AIDS vaccine conference in Cape Town.

The statement came as a shock considering the fact that for years, South African officials had denied the link between the HIV and AIDS including former President Thabo Mbeki and his health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang. The latter was even accused of spreading confusion about AIDS through her public mistrust of antiretroviral medicines and promotion of nutritional remedies such as garlic, beetroot, lemon, olive oil and the African potato. These remedies earned her the nicknames “Dr. Garlic” and Dr. Beetroot” and made her a favorite target for cartoonists.

“It was imperative to get ahead of the curve of this epidemic 10 years ago. We all have lost ground. It’s even more imperative now that we make HIV prevention work; we desperately need an effective HIV vaccine,” Hogan continued.

Alan Bernstein, executive director of the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise, characterized her words as “a breath of fresh air.”

Hogan became health minister in September, when Kgalema Motlanthe took over from Thabo Mbeki. Motlanthe demoted former health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang to a lower governmental position and named Hogan as her successor.