InterPress News Service (IPS); Wednesday, 9 April 1997.
Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, Apr 9 (IPS) - The AIDS (Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome) epidemic, to which refugees are particularly vulnerable, continues to pick up steam worldwide, the executive director of the UNAIDS project, Peter Piot, warned Wednesday.

"Regardless of what is being said everywhere, the epidemic is not abating, not even in Western countries," said Piot, the head of the UN agency that coordinates the international fight against AIDS.

An average of 8,500 new people a day are infected by the AIDS- causing Human Immuno-Deficiency Virus (HIV). In 1996, 1.5 million people died of AIDS, one fourth of the total number of victims since the disease appeared in the early 1980s.

Piot warned that in spite of a drop in AIDS-related deaths in Western countries, the epidemic was gaining ground worldwide, reaching or exceeding the mortality levels of diseases like malaria.

The UNAIDS coordination council, which closed its fourth session in Geneva on Wednesday, expressed particular concern over the vulnerability of refugees, who are frequently exposed to sexual violence and trafficking in sex. Refugee women, who along with children comprise 75 percent of the world's refugee population, are at highest risk, the UN officials added.

South African Health Minister Kasazana Zuma, who presides over the council, described the difficulties in developing prevention campaigns in refugee camps.

For people who daily face the threat of violent death, an illness like AIDS, which takes some 10 years to become fatal, presents a very remote danger, Zuma underlined.

"What kind of recreation do refugees have? Some say sex is the pastime of the poor, although it also is for the rich," she added. "But when there is nothing else to do, neither possibilities of going to the cinema or a football match, there will surely be an increase in sexual activity."

UNAIDS expressed its concern over the continuing refugee crisis in central Africa, and issued a call to adopt AIDS prevention measures. The crisis in the Great Lakes region is of concern to the rest of Africa, not only in terms of political instability but also with respect to the AIDS epidemic, Piot stressed.

Another UNAIDS priority is improving access to AIDS treatments. Today, medical treatment for HIV infections and AIDS costs 10,000 to 15,000 dollars a year - compared to the 10 to 100 dollars a year per person spent by most developing countries on health.

Access to the new treatments is not an option for the majority of AIDS-sufferers in the world, added Piot, who said his programme is currently negotiating with the private sector to reduce such cost barriers.

The UN official also said his agency was working with private companies to obtain an affordable price for the female condom, which provides women with independence in AIDS prevention.

Zuma praised the steps taken by UNAIDS in working with the private sector. "We believe that the business world has to play an important and creative role in the fight against AIDS."

Piot warned industrialised nations that as long as the epidemic continued to spread throughout the world, "it will not disappear in any single country." (END/IPS/trd-so/pc/dg/sw/97)

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