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Psychological support urged for HIV-positive people

    JOHANNESBURG

    The psychological and emotional needs of people living with HIV/AIDS require critical attention, South Africa's Depression and Anxiety Group (SADAG) has warned.

    Although the group welcomed the government's recent decision to begin an intensive anti-AIDS drug rollout campaign, the CEO of SADAG, Zane Wilson, noted that this was only one aspect of fighting the epidemic.

    She said now that the fight to roll-out antiretroviral (ARV) treatment for HIV-positive people had been won, the more complex war against AIDS-related mental illness has come into sharp focus.

    "It's not a victory if we can only help prolong someone's life with ARV treatment and then lose that same person because we neglected their emotional, psychological and spiritual welfare," the government's news agency, BuaNews, quoted Wilson as saying.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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