Minister Given Liver Transplant

South Africa's minister of health, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, has had a liver transplant after being diagnosed as suffering from auto-immune hepatitis. Doctors said the disease had badly damaged her liver.

The minister was admitted to the intensive care unit at Johannesburg general hospital about a month ago after becoming incoherent while attending a media briefing. She had previously been in hospital in October for a month, suffering from a lung infection.

Mrs Tshabalala-Msimang earned notoriety by backing a claim by President Thabo Mbeki that HIV/Aids was not caused by a virus. She recommended that sufferers eat such things as garlic and beetroot instead of taking antiretrovirals, which earned her the nickname Dr Beetroot. The operation was said to be successful and she was expected to take about a month to recuperate.

South Africa's transport minister, Jeff Radebe, has been appointed to stand in for her during her illness. This appears to indicate that the deputy minister, Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, who has been openly critical of the president and the health minister over their handling of the HIV/Aids crisis, and is something of a hero among Aids activists, is not in the running to succeed Mrs Tshabalala-Msimang.

But Aids activists were greatly encouraged this week when the government launched a plan aimed at a 50% reduction in the rate of new HIV infections by 2011. The plan and the extensive consultations surrounding it are seen by many as indicative that a turning point has been reached in the long-running battle against the disease.