Inter Press Service - May 31, 2000
Brian Kenety

"While the threat is global, Africa bears a disproportionate share of the suffering caused by these diseases," said a joint statement released in Portugal at the end of the twice-annual EU-US Summit, at which the two sides discussed a broad range of foreign policy and trade issues.

"This year alone, HIV/AIDS will claim more than 2 million lives in Africa while more than 1 million will be lost to malaria and tuberculosis. While there have been some notably positive developments in Africa, the devastating effects of these diseases threaten to reverse decades of development and to rob an entire generation of hope for a better future," said the text.

"This health crisis in much of Africa contributes to a vicious cycle of disease and poverty, eroding security and undermining social and economic development and poverty reduction," it said.

On May 20, the World Health Assembly ended a week-long meeting in Geneva at which member states adopted resolutions calling for action on AIDS, non-communicable diseases, and tuberculosis.

Following that meeting, World Health Organisation (WHO) Director- General Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland said WHO member countries "are about to give new directions and a new energy to an expanded, revitalised response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic" through enhanced care and prevention measures.

A comprehensive resolution on HIV/AIDS from the Assembly urged WHO member states to increase access to treatment and prophylaxis of HIV-related illnesses and to make drugs both available and affordable. A special UN Security Council meeting on the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa earlier this year referred to it as a unique modern-day plague, threatening the political, economic and social stability of sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.

The EU-US joint statement issued Wednesday acknowledged the "extensive work being done in this field by many international organisations, such as WHO, the World Bank and UNAIDS." Over the last three years, World Bank lending for the treatment and prevention of communicable diseases averaged roughly 300 million dollars annually with 145 million for HIV/AIDS, 62 million for malaria, 58 million for tuberculosis, and 34 million for immunisation.

The EU-US statement said, however, that the scale of the problem "requires new mechanisms to mobilise international opinion, resources and to take appropriate action to assist African countries".

"We will welcome and encourage initiatives aimed at developing international partnerships with the WHO, UNAIDS and other UN agencies, the donor community, governments in developed as well as developing countries, the pharmaceutical industry and civil society to develop new and co-ordinated responses, sustain successful national health strategies, and improve access to drugs," it said. According to WHO estimates, nearly 34 million people worldwide are currently living with HIV/AIDS and 95 percent of them are in developing countries. In sub-Saharan Africa, where over 23 million people are infected, HIV/AIDS is the leading cause of death.

The two sides pledged to mobilise their diplomats and other representatives in each country concerned to work with national leaders and others "to intensify co-operative actions, to share relevant information needed to encourage prevention, and to strengthen local capacity to deliver necessary health services and treatments for HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis."

The two sides pledged to seek governmental and private resources, including through multilateral organisations and institutions. According to a background report by the EU, investment in HIV vaccine development is "minimal" compared with investment in treatment research: little attention has been paid to developing a vaccine suitable for developing countries.

"At the current rate of progress it will be 10-15 years before an HIV vaccine is made available to the developing world and, in that time, more than 150 million people could be infected with HIV," said the report. The European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, co-ordinated a technical consultation on HIV vaccines in March 1999 and created a task force to form an EU strategy to address the problem.

Although no new funding was expressly promised at the EU-US Summit Wednesday, the two sides said they would support governments "that undertake to improve their health systems with resources made available under the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) debt relief initiative and through the implementation of the Poverty Reduction Strategies developed in consultation with civil society and international donors".

According to a senior US official, through the initiative and in discussions at the upcoming meeting of the G-8 group of industrialised countries in Okinawa, Japan "we will begin to see a little bit of a snowball effect in terms of the industrialised governments putting up money against these goals."

The EU-US joint statement said they "are looking forward to the G8 initiatives on communicable diseases and poverty at the upcoming Summit in Okinawa." In a May 22 speech, Poul Nielson, EU Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Affairs, noted that "both the industrialised world and some in Africa have to share the blame for the fact that most of Africa is still far poorer" than it should be.

"Despite its promises and with a few exceptions, countries of the so-called 'first world' have not dedicated enough of their wealth to the fight against poverty," he said, noting that the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) members which are not G-7 members (G-8 less Russia) spend 0.44 percent of their combined GNP on development aid, while G-7 members only spend 0.21 percent.

"All but four donor countries fail to meet the (international) target of providing 0.7 percent of GNP for development," said Nielson.

Meanwhile, "one African country in two continues to live in absolute poverty, a situation not unrelated to the spread of AIDS and the resurgence of malaria," he said, adding that in East Africa, 40 percent of children aged 15 or younger have lost one or both parents due to AIDS and 90 percent of malaria cases are in Africa.

The US official, speaking on background, noted that Japan, "as hosts of the G-8, have expressed a lot of interest in tackling this critical problem, which is both an economic problem for many African countries and a health problem."

Earlier this year, the United States announced its intention to intensify efforts at combating AIDS and other infectious diseases that affect developing countries and Africa, in part through bilateral funding of research into diseases for which no vaccines yet exist.

US President Bill Clinton, in an unprecedented meeting with leaders from the pharmaceutical industry, foundations, and international organisations on Mar. 2, formally launched his Millennium Vaccine Initiative (MVI) to hasten the development of affordable vaccines against diseases which ravage poor countries.

Clinton has also sought 50 million dollars in his country's 2001 foreign-aid budget to contribute to Global Alliance on Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI), a coalition of organisations established with a 70-million-dollar contribution by Microsoft chief Bill Gates in February to spur the development and distribution of vaccines, particularly in Africa.

Portugal, which currently holds the rotating European Union (EU) presidency, was responsible for organising the first ever summit between Europe and Africa at the head of state or government level, which was held in Egypt in April. On Tuesday, the United States and Portugal announced a new partnership with Sao Tome and Principe to study that African country's "unique malarial epidemic" and to develop a strategy to end it. In the Cairo Declaration and the Action Plan that came out of the summit, EU and African leaders pledged their commitment to pursue further action in combating communicable diseases.

The renewal of the ACP-EU Partnership Agreement in June 2000 will also highlight the need to work with the African, Caribbean and Pacific Partners on a comprehensive approach in the context of poverty reduction.

"We call upon political leaders in Africa and elsewhere to encourage information and education campaigns, including on how to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS. We welcome the success in some countries, where strong political leadership, openness to the issues, and flexible responses come together," said the EU-US statement. (END/IPS/DV/HE/bk/da/00)
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