This is going to be a short post. Short – yet probably the most somber – one to date. It is about Winstone Zulu, a prominent AIDs and TB activist and campaigner from Zambia. He was diagnosed with HIV in 1990 and was the first person in Zambia to make a public statement about his HIV status. With the stigma associated with AIDS in that part of the world, this was a tremendously courageous thing to do. The Treatment Action Campaign have some very thoughtful words about him
He started taking anti-retro-viral medication in 1996 but unfortunately, he stopped them in 2000 after encountering quack AIDS-denialist views that ‘HIV did not cause AIDS’. When confronted with the evidence and his error in judgement, he changed his mind and became one the most vociferous supporters of Aids Medication in Africa. He was also forthcoming in his repudiation of AIDs related quackery in Africa which was on the rise, not least because of the disastrous policies of South African President Thabo Mbeki.
Winstone Zulu , a man who fought a personal battle with AIDs and TB with great courage; a man who (when confronted with the error of his ways) had the integrity to own up to them and to back it up with tireless campaigning on behalf of the millions afflicted with AIDS and TB, died on October 12th, 2011.
Here is an old clip of him speaking on the Global Situation and Strategies for addressing HIV/TB at the HIV/TB Global Leaders’ Forum