InterPress News Service (IPS); Wednesday, 19 March 1997.
Roberto Fonseca L.

Pascual Ortells, director of the Nimehuatzin Foundation - an organization dedicated to the struggle against the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) - believes that the government is making a "tragically mistake" in believing thje situation is under control.

But, according to Health Minister Carlos Quinonez, "the incidence of AIDS in Nicaragua is minimal, having affected only 80 people. What has happened is that these 80 cases have gotten a lot of press since the disease is fatal".

Quinonez declared "existing programs for AIDS treatment and prevention will be left in place but our priorities are other epidemic diseases and the improvement of the nation's hospital infrastructure."

Ortells, however, maintained there were 450 known cases of AIDS but there could be as many as 15,000 Nicaraguans unknowingly infected with the HIV virus that can lead to the killer disease.

Ortells also said that by the year 2000 "Nicaragua could experience an AIDS boom if nothing is done to alter the current trajectory. Indeed, in three short years, AIDS could become the number one epidemiological problem in the country."

According to official data, Nicaragua is the Central American country witrh the lowest incidence of AIDS, registering 26.6 cases per million inhabitants in the time period from 1983 through 1995.

Honduras has the highest incidence of AIDS in Central America with 816.9 cases per million inhabitants, followed by El Salvador with 247.3, Costa Rica with 244.2 and Guatemala with 60.

Up until 1996, the Nicaraguan Health Ministry had registered 246 cases of people infected with the HIV virus that is responsible for transmitting AIDS. Of this total, 124 were still in the asymptomatic phase. Of the other 122 victims, 75 had died.

The overwhelming majority of cases - 86 per cent - involve men, and the chief means of transmission is heterosexual activity, accounting for 53.5 per cent of all infections.

Quinonez told IPS that "the fight against AIDS is very costly and the government lacks the resources to combat the disease vigorously...our AIDS control program enjoys the assistance of international agencies which have donated a supply of medicines that are now available to those who suffer from this disease."

Ortells has asked why the current government - as well as the prior government - refuse to subscribe to the Paris Declaration of December, 1994, in which 42 chiefs of state affirmed the need for "political leaders to prioritize the struggle against AIDS?"

At the end of 1996, Nicaraguan legislators approved a law "promoting, protecting and defending human rights in the face of AIDS", but Nicaragua's chief executive has yet to sign the bill. The law specifies that no one can be subjected to AIDS testing without their expressed consent; that everyone tested has the right to learn the results in a personal, confidential manner; and that the communication of seropositivity must be accompanied by counselling.

The states that infection with HIV cannot be used as a reason to deny employment, nor to cause dismissal, nor to impede a child's studies in any way. The law proposes that the State guarantee medical attention to people who suffer from AIDS without subjecting them to isolation or rejection. The legislation also establishes the right of infected people to have open access to reproductive health care and to family planning.

On behalf of his organization, Ortells says "we support this legislation because it is geared to neutralizing the hysteria that talking about AIDS, in some sectors of society, engenders."

Ortells goes on to say that the law "will create a humane, reasonable climate in order that we might approach the problem of AIDS as something that has to do with both health and culture, as well as individual and social behaviors".

Nevertheless, the social battle will be predictably difficult since the newly constituted Ministry of Health is considered by social organizations as "ultraconservative" --- close to the outlook of Cardenal Miguel Obando, leader of Nicaragua's Catholic hierarchy. (END/rfl/aa/97)

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IP970303

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