HIV/AIDS News from Kenya, Botswana, Zimbabwe, India, Thailand
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From UN Foundation news:
The latest UN statistics are predicting that in Kenya, half of the
girls who turn 15 this year will become infected with HIV during their
lives, the Washington Post reports in the last of a three-part series
on the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Among the Luo, Kenya's second-largest tribe,
70% will become infected. An explosion of funerals in Masogo, Kenya, in
the late 1990s drove the issue of HIV/AIDS into the open. While the
traditional day of burial is Saturday, leaders in Masogo were burying
so many people, "we bury every day of the week," said Elijah Owaga, a
Masogo minister. And despite a pledge from drug companies to lower the
cost of some treatments for HIV/AIDS, drugs that cost $11,000 a year in
the United States are not likely to be affordable in Kenya, which budg-
ets $17 per capita each year for health care. Medical experts are now
encouraged, however, that condoms are being used more frequently, in-
formation is spreading, and AIDS awareness is now being taught in
schools. In some schools, however, teachers spend only 20 minutes the
entire year discussing AIDS (Karl Vick, Washington Post, 7 Jul). See
also parts one and two of the Washington Post's series.
Botswana Issues AIDS Warning
Botswana's Health Minister Joy Phumaphi has issued a warning that two-
thirds of the country's young people could die of AIDS before they
reach age 40 if reckless sexual practices continue. Quoting a survey by
her ministry, she said that prevalence of the disease among pregnant
women in some areas of Botswana has topped 50%, and that a third of the
women were likely to pass the virus on to their children (Integrated
Regional Information Networks, 6 Jul).
Zimbabwe Losing Ground Against Disease -- Financial Times
One in four Zimbabweans will likely die from HIV/AIDS, including one in
three in the nation's capital, Harare, the Financial Times reports.
Zimbabwe's labor force will be one-sixth smaller in 2015 than in an
AIDS-free world, says Harare-based SafAIDS. According to South African
mining company Anglo-American, 40% of lost work time in Zimbabwe re-
sults from the disease. Communal farming output has dropped by 50% in
the past five years due in large part to HIV/AIDS. Also, Zimbabwe has
more than 1 million children orphaned by HIV/AIDS. Yet Zimbabwe's de-
fense budget, at US$ 235 million, dwarfs its health budget of US$ 162
million (Mark Turner, Financial Times, 2 Jul).
Leaders Should Look To Uganda -- Commentary
In light of the international AIDS conference which opens Sunday in
Durban, South Africa, columnist Trudy Rubin writes in the Philadelphia
Inquirer that AIDS experts should ask at the meeting why other African
leaders are not following the lead of Ugandan President Yoweri
Museveni. She points out that under his leadership, Uganda has seen its
HIV infection rate drop from 30% of adults in the early 1990s to 10%,
the lowest rate in East Africa. Rubin lauds Museveni for bringing the
disease into the open, focusing on prevention of new infections and
talking bluntly about the need for safe sex. "He bucked widespread Af-
rican cultural taboos against open discussion of sexual behavior, let
alone AIDS," she writes. "By breaking those taboos, he enabled HIV vic-
tims to speak out." Rubin writes that his leadership could establish a
framework within which international donors can aid Uganda. "At the
Durban conference, they should be asked to do much more," she writes
(Trudy Rubin, Philadelphia Inquirer, 7 Jul).
Writer Calls For Marshall Plan On AIDS In Africa
Sociologist Anthony Monteiro, who studies the social impact of
HIV/AIDS, argues that what is needed to combat the "catastrophic human
holocaust" posed by AIDS in Africa is an initiative "on the level of
the Marshall Plan ... providing global economic aid and trade to re-
build Africa's economies." In a commentary in the Philadelphia In-
quirer, Monteiro writes that "The international community must immedi-
ately commit itself to making medicines, health workers, facilities and
food available to fight both the virus and malnutrition." The "arro-
gant, do-nothing attitude" of Western governments, the international
community and the pharmaceutical industry has left Africa defenseless
against an AIDS pandemic, Monteiro charges. He blames the continent's
"social and economic crisis" on 30 years of foreign debt, "World
Bank/IMF-imposed neo-liberal economic policies" and civil wars. Accord-
ing to Monteiro, the "horrible marriage" of these factors with HIV ex-
acerbates the AIDS crisis, with poverty ranking as the primary chal-
lenge facing the continent. He contends that the fight against AIDS in
Africa "is necessarily a fight against poverty -- meaning a fight
against World Bank/IMF-imposed policies" (Anthony Monteiro, Philadel-
phia Inquirer, 5 Jul).
India Set To Be Next Epicenter, Expert Warns
In India and other Southeast Asian countries, where the spread of
HIV/AIDS is already a problem, "the ingredients are there to have the
same sort of situation that we're seeing in Africa," said Dr. Anthony
Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases. "India is, I believe, going to be the next epicenter of the
epidemic," unless dramatic measures are taken, Fauci warned. Fauci
linked the threat of HIV/AIDS in Asia with the inability to deliver
health care. The countries which are most severely affected by this
threat also have serious problems with malaria, tuberculosis and other
types of diseases, he said. "The major tragedy of HIV" is that with
proper education, safe sex practices and behavior modification, it is a
preventable disease, he said. "The traditions and customs of countries
in which this epidemic is now exploding are such that it is going to be
very difficult to make these types of drastic changes in the kinds of
behavior that people have been accustomed to over centuries," he said
(Bob Edwards, National Public Radio Morning Edition, 6 Jul.
AIDS Statistics For India In Dispute
A Joint UN Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) report released last month,
which said India had more than 300,000 AIDS-related deaths last year
and estimates the number of HIV infections in India at 3.7 million, is
being challenged by the World Bank-funded National AIDS Control Organi-
zation (NACO). The organization says the UNAIDS figures are highly ex-
aggerated. "There is no basis for these projections and the UNAIDS
headquarters in Geneva could not explain how they reached these esti-
mates," said NACO Director Prasada Rao. One UNAIDS official in Delhi
said the estimates are "projections based on our knowledge of how long
it takes for HIV to spread in a given population." The agency also said
that India's epidemic is diverse, with some states showing almost no
infections, and others showing infection rates of 2% or more of the
adult population. Some critics say both UNAIDS and NACO figures are in-
accurate, due to an absence of reliable baseline data (Inter Press Ser-
vice/TerraViva, 6 Jul).
Thailand Needs Prevention To Avoid AIDS Relapse -- Study
Thailand has succeeded in reducing HIV infections, but must redouble
its prevention efforts among heterosexuals and intravenous drug users
or face a relapse of the disease, according to the latest disease pro-
jections. Thailand's campaign promoting condom use has reduced HIV
transmission from sex workers to male clients, but has not been effec-
tive with married partners, who account for nearly half of all new HIV
infections, according to Tim Brown and Wiwat Peerapatanapokin of the
University of Hawaii's Population and Health Studies. In addition, in-
fections have increased as much as 20% between 1999 and 2000 among in-
travenous drug users who share needles. Since the start of the epidemic
in Thailand, 984,000 people have been infected with the disease and
289,000 have died of AIDS (Aphaluck Bhatiasevi, Bangkok Post, 1 Jul).
--
Leela McCullough, Ed.D.
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