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Roundup: Africa in Uphill Battle Against AIDS
Fully aware of the threats from the deadly HIV/AIDS pandemic, a total of 17 African leaders, including Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, are expected to attend the first U.N. General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS.
To tackle the worst human plague in recent history, the three- day meeting, to be opened on Monday in New York, is expected to attract 24 heads of state and government, the bulk of whom are from Africa, among the 3,000 plus delegates from 180 countries.
The presence of large number of African leaders at the meeting reflects the severity of the AIDS crisis in their countries. Sub- Saharan Africa has become the worst affected region in the world by the scourge.
According to figures released by the U.N. Program on AIDS ( UNAIDS), more than 36 million people were living with the HIV/AIDS worldwide by the end of year 2,000 -- an alarming total of 25 million of them in the sub-Saharan region.
Out of the cumulative total of nearly 22 million AIDS deaths worldwide, the statistics pointed out, 16 million are Africans.
HIV/AIDS is even more horrible than wars and conflicts so rampant on the continent, said a U.N. report, saying some 200,000 Africans died of war in 1998 while more than 2 million died of AIDS in the same period.
AIDS is not only a top health concern for the continent, but a social and economical headache as well. Already the least developed region in the world, Africa's hope for a renaissance may be dimmed by the pandemic alone, which has been taking away the most productive elements from it -- educated men and women.
According to reports, some countries have already suffered from severe shortage of qualified teachers, doctors, and engineers as the disease taking its toll.
AIDS is taking away about 1 percent from Africa's overall economic growth each year, said the World Bank in a recent report. For some hardest-hit countries, including Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe, the reduction is as high as 3-4 percent, it said.
The disease also hits the most vulnerable on this continent -- kids. Africa only has about 10 percent of the world's population, but is home to 90 percent of the world's HIV-infected children. AIDS has left in its wake some 12 million orphans in Africa, well beyond the capacity of the continent's social security network can handle.
The Southeast Africa alone hosts more than 5.5 million children who lost their mothers or both parents to the disease, according to reports.
Fortunately, African leaders have been aware of the threat, and are taking common actions in the face of such a huge common challenge.
In April this year, African leaders held a summit on the HIV/ AIDS and other infectious diseases in Nigeria's capital Abuja. More than 40 African heads of state are among the 2,400 delegates who attended the meeting.
African states at the summit pledged to set aside 15 percent of their annual budget for their health sector -- much of which will be channeled to the fight against the HIV/AIDS.
At the summit, African leaders also approved an anti-AIDS plan proposed by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan including setting up a multi-billion-U.S. dollar global trust fund, code-named "war chest", to aid the AIDS fight.
The global fund, already having been pledged about 400 million dollars, is expected to get further enlarged at the upcoming UN AIDS meeting.
AIDS, of course not an African endemic, has also been taking its toll in Asia, the Caribbean and Eastern Europe, among others.
In the past two months, Annan has on different occasions outlined areas that require worldwide actions, including spread prevention, reduction of mother-to-child transmission, care and treatment for those infected, search for cure and vaccine, and protection for the vulnerable, especially orphans.
"No one can avoid the responsibility of fight against the HID/ AIDS in the world," said a African leader recently. Yet Africa has to make painstaking efforts in the uphill battle which is against its odds.
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