Mr Zuma has done irreparable damage to efforts to curb the spread of the deadly disease with ‘unacceptable’ actions revealed during his recent rape trial, said Stephen Lewis, UN chief Kofi Annan's special envoy for AIDS in Africa.
"I feel embarrassed for the African leadership and if you will forgive me that has been the situation in South Africa where the voice of political leadership has been both confused and confusing," he said.
"The voice of Zuma just made it even more unpalatable," he said at a news conference aside a meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Union being held in the Kenyan capital this week.
A South African court acquitted Zuma of rape charges on Monday, accepting the defence claim that sex between the ex-deputy president and the HIV-positive complainant had been consensual.
Mr Zuma later unconditionally apologized to South Africans for engaging in unprotected sex with the woman, who he implied had solicited the encounter, and pledged to continue to fight against AIDS.
But Mr Lewis was unimpressed and said no amount of apologizing from Zuma could heal the damage done by his "unacceptable male behaviour" and
"appallingly uninformed" testimony during the trial.
"I don't think anything can compensate for the damage that he has done," he said, noting that between 5.5 and 6.5 million South Africans are currently infected with HIV, the virus that can cause AIDS.
South Africa has long been a country of concern for anti-AIDS campaigners who have complained about comments from President Thabo Mbeki that the disease is caused by poverty, and Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang who has advocated a diet of garlic, beetroot and olive oil as an antidote.
Of the 39.4 million people in the world living with AIDS or the human
immunodeficiency virus (HIV), nearly two-thirds - 25.4 million - live in sub-Saharan Africa, the poorest region in the world.
Protests in India
Protests took place in India’s capital Delhi on Wednesday (local time) over efforts by multinational drug companies to patent HIV/AIDS drugs which campaigners say will stifle supplies of affordable treatment.
Indian companies now provide two-thirds of the world's cheap AIDS/HIV therapies.
Until last year India permitted the copying of patented drugs, which allowed the country's pharmaceutical industry to sell cheap versions of AIDS/HIV drug cocktails, known as antiretrovirals.
Legislation enacted in March 2005 curtails the ability of firms to make copycat treatments and allows foreign pharmaceutical companies to claim ownership of drugs.
The UK’s Guardian newspaper reported that California-based Gilead and Britain's GlaxoSmithKline have now applied for patents on two HIV treatments.
Campaigners, lawyers and Indian drug makers have opposed the applications, and more than 100 people were arrested in protests yesterday in Delhi.
Activists say patents would drive up prices as Indian manufacturers would have to pay royalties and rival generic versions would be blocked for 20 years.
Gilead has sought a patent on a key AIDS treatment called tenofovir (Viread), while Glaxo has sought one for a widely used drug called Combivir.
Lawyers say 8,000 patent applications are in the pipeline.
Exports by Indian companies helped to cut the price of antiretroviral treatment from US$15,000 (A$19,500) per patient per year a decade ago to $200 (A$260).
Campaigners say that as patients develop a resistance to ‘first-line’ drugs, there will be no scope for a reduction in prices of second-generation medicines without the Indian generic drugs. The second-generation drugs are already 10 times more expensive than older treatments.
"Granting [these patents] would set a dangerous precedent," said Ellen 't Hoen, director of policy at Medecins sans Frontieres. "We will be back to the days when multinationals controlled the price."
Drug companies say they sell to poor countries at cheap rates and that problems with public health systems, rather than patents, curtails accessibility.