KAMPALA, Oct 30 (AFP) - An international conference of People Living With HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) ended here on Thursday with a call to the world and governments to help victims get free drugs to fight HIV/AIDS.
"The international community should provide more of these drugs and give accessibility to them than they are currently doing, while national governments should move towards free provision of the drugs," said a conference statement read by Stu Flavell, the international coordinator of PLWHA's Global Network.
"The international community has not given as much as they should," said Ugandan army Major Rubaramira Ruranga, who is himself infected.
Iranian delegate Amir Morada said his country was providing free drugs to about 1,000 people living with HIV/AIDS, out of the country's 5,000 known cases.
Community activists and non-governmental organisation (NGO) workers, including PLWHA, have been meeting at a Kampala's Munyonyo resort since Sunday to give what they called "new positive leadership" to the AIDS struggle.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on Sunday called on his fellow leaders to give show political leadership in the fight against AIDS, which has had a devastating effect in Africa.
"Sub-Saharan Africa, where 80 percent of the 60 million of the world's PLWHA live, loses two to four of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) because of AIDS," Museveni told the opening session.
Among the participants were children between the ages of 11 to 18 years, whom organisers say represented 100 children living with HIV/AIDS in Uganda, who spoke to delegates about their fears, hopes and expectations.
Several delegates fell sick during the conference and Red Cross workers were at hand to take them to hospitals, especially those from poor countries who did not have access to anti-retroviral drugs.
Uganda announced at the start of the conference that it would provide cheap anti-retroviral drugs to people needing them for a cost of less than 50 cents per patient a day.
About 20,000 people have access to the drugs in Uganda out of the 60,000 who get them in Sub Saharan Africa.
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