Mandela in AIDS drugs appeal

Mandela described the spread of AIDS as a "pandemic"

CAPE TOWN, South Africa -- Former South African President Nelson Mandela has called for AIDS victims to be given easier access to drugs that fight the disease.

"For those who are HIV-positive, we must ensure that they get the proper treatment and drugs which are going to help them resist the pandemic," he said on Saturday.

Mandela, who also said heads of state must take the lead in raising awareness of the illness, spoke as a U.N. report revealed that the disease is on the increase, with Eastern Europe particular hard hit.

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The report, released to coincide with World AIDS Day on Saturday, revealed 75,000 new infections of the virus had been reported in Russia by early November, a 15-fold increase in just three years.

The U.N. also warned that AIDS was continuing to spread worldwide at a dramatic pace, with 40 million children and adults infected by HIV, an increase of four million from last year.

Mandela, 83, cuddled infected and dying children during a visit to the Beautiful Gate Home in Cape Town's Crossroads shanty town.

Africa's most-respected statesman insisted repeatedly in his answers to the children's questions that the government should provide drugs to prolong the lives of people already infected with HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS.

"We must combine various strategies, firstly giving people the necessary drugs to try and prevent the disease taking the upper hand," he said.

He also said that heads of state should lead the fight against AIDS, which already has infected more than 40 million people worldwide.

"Heads of state and their first ladies must be in the forefront of the campaign to fight AIDS," Mandela said, naming the leaders of Botswana, Uganda and Senegal as role models.

"These presidents themselves are leading the campaign ... they pick up children with AIDS," he said, praising Britain's Princess Diana, who died in 1997, for taking a lead in showing that physical contact with AIDS sufferers is safe."

South Africa has more people living with AIDS than any other country in the world -- close to five million people or one in nine of the population are affected -- and the government has been widely criticised for its handling of the crisis.

AIDS activists and doctors have taken the government to court in an attempt to force it to provide a drug called nevirapine that could cut the risk of pregnant women passing on HIV to their babies by up to 50 percent.

Government lawyers argued the cost of providing such treatment would cripple the public health system given the numbers affected and questioned the efficacy of the drug.

South African President Thabo Mbeki, who has provoked widespread anger for questioning the causal link between HIV and AIDS and for not speaking more openly about the disease, has often said he is concerned about the safety of such drugs.