CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE | WEEKLY NEWS
by ANB-BIA, Brussels, December 1998
THEME = AIDS
According to data published in June 1998 by the joint United Nations Programme on AIDS (UNAIDS ), uneven access to HIV treatment is leading to a looming divide between rich countries where the number of AIDS deaths is falling, and poor countries where people are dying in even greater numbers. This report warns that unless life-prolonging therapy is made widely available, most of those with HIV will be dead within a decade.
In October 1998, the United Nations Population Division published a report on population trends in which it says it expects a dramatic decline in life expectancy in sub-Saharan Africa because of the AIDS epidemic. The report says the vast majority of the 30 million people in the world currently infected with the HIV virus, live in the countries of sub-Saharan Africa. On average, in the 29 hardest hit African countries, people live for seven years less, due to AIDS - life expectancy at birth is now estimated at 47 years. In Botswana, the worst affected country where one of four adults is infected, life expectancy is anticipated to fall further, to 41 years by 2005. Other countries named in the report include Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe where more than 10% of the adult population is infected by the HIV virus.
Such reports are important because they provide us with statistics and hard facts - devastating in themselves. But they do not underline the human tragedy behind the facts and figures. And little mention is made of the efforts made by governments, local organisations and individuals in the countries concerned, to stem the pandemic.
African News Bulletin has dedicated this issue to the theme of "Africa Faced With Aids". We asked some of our journalist friends in Africa to provide us with a report on the present situation regarding AIDS in the country in which they live or work.
Some startling details have emerged regarding its rapid spread across the continent (with the notable exception of the Islamic countries of North Africa). Authors speak of AIDS resulting from the breakdown of traditional family values, from poverty and unemployment leading to prostitution, from the on-going debt situation, from war and civil unrest. And it appears that AIDS is not just found in the urban areas. Many authors point out that the rural areas are also heavily affected as well.
With very limited means, governments have set up organisations to control the spread of the AIDS pandemic. Frequent mention is made of "awareness campaigns", of "education", of the importance of "communicating" with their local populations.
Some authors gave gone out of their way to pinpoint and explain in detail the action taken by organisations not just to halt the spread of AIDS , but to provide a health care service for those already infected and to look after their families and especially the orphans left behind. Frequent mention is made of the effort to target groups at risk and of involving teachers, churches and other religious groups in the fight against AIDS. A number of authors insist that those diagnosed as having AIDS are not to be shunned and cast out of society. Rather they are to be welcomed and given practical encouragement to live a full and useful life as far as possible.
Many authors have tried to be as positive as possible when dealing with a tragic subject. Concern there may be, but not despair. And that's so very important!
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CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE | WEEKLY NEWS
PeaceLink 1999 - Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgement