Inter Press Service - June 22, 2000
Jorge Pina

The initiative concentrates on low-income countries hit particularly hard by AIDS, which are also the focus of additional interventions by the Italian foreign ministry's office of development aid in West Africa- Gulf of Guineau, East Africa- Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes region.

And while the incidence of AIDS is low in North Africa, tight controls are also needed in that area to keep the disease from spreading, warns the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Worldwide, some 34 million people are living with the AIDS- causing human immuno-deficiency virus (HIV), 90 percent of them in countries of the developing South and at least 70 percent in sub- Saharan Africa, according to reports released by WHO last year.

In sub-Saharan Africa, 2.5 million people died of AIDS-related conditions in 1999 alone, while eight million children lost their mother and/or father to the disease and 500,000 children in the region were born to mothers with HIV or full-blown AIDS.

In rich countries, the introduction of new medicines and well- developed health care systems have prolonged the life expectancy of people testing positive for HIV, and drastically reduced AIDS- related mortality rates.

But the cost of treatment with the latest remedies is high: around 15,000 dollars a year per patient.

Developing countries post much higher AIDS mortality rates due to precarious medical services and the lack of access to medicines.

Italy's initiative aims at addressing the primary needs of affected groups and, in second place, contributing to the fight against the spread of HIV, Dr. Bruno Gentile, with the office of development aid, told IPS.

Italy's non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have also been called on to play an important role in the campaign, said the official, who is involved in the office's activities in Africa.

Italy has earmarked five million dollars for the humanitarian emergency campaign, which is also aimed at alleviating the suffering of AIDS patients. Several African countries -- Ethiopia, Eritrea, Mozambique and Zambia -- were selected from those where ordinary aid initiatives have run up against hurdles, such as sociopolitical conditions like armed conflict that favour the spread of AIDS, but which nevertheless have put efforts against the disease among their top priorities.

Monitoring and prevention activities will also be carried out in Algeria. In addition, Italy pledged eight million dollars to go towards WHO's anti-AIDS efforts in Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Rwanda, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe over the next two years.

These seven countries -- to which Angola and Nigeria could be added, with more modest initiatives -- were selected based on their high poverty rates and high incidence of AIDS and HIV, as well as the absence of conflicts and Italy's strong government and non-governmental presence in the health sector.

Furthermore, Italy has earmarked 1.3 million dollars this year for the joint UN programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

Also under study is a four million dollar contribution to a WHO regional initiative in support of programmes fighting AIDS in Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda. (END/IPS/jp/ag/sw/00)
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