Inter Press Service - July 12, 2000
Mithre J. Sandrasagra

Armed with findings that HIV/AIDS infects six people under the age of 24 every minute, UNICEF said the nations of the world must organise themselves against this disease - which infects 34.3 million people - as if they were "fighting a full blown war of liberation."

"HIV/AIDS constitutes the greatest threat many societies have ever faced," Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of UNICEF said.

"Unfortunately in many ways it has been a hidden enemy, aided and abetted by a general reluctance to acknowledge its strength and our own vulnerability. Thus we have not confronted AIDS with the full force that we are capable of," she added.

In its annual report "The Progress of Nations, 2000" released Wednesday, UNICEF said that young people are being forced into the workplace earlier, they are being orphaned, and their teachers are dying because of the spreading AIDS epidemic.

This year's report, which focuses primarily on the devastating disease, says that in 1999 alone an estimated 860,000 primary school children lost their teachers to AIDS.

"Virtually every society understands what it is like to wage a struggle for liberation," Bellamy said, noting that the concept has particular resonance in Africa.

"It means mobilising every available resource; it means involving men and women on an equal basis; it means accepting the vital role to be played by young people; and it means sparing no effort and brooking no diversions until all of society is liberated. That is what is needed now - nothing less."

In many developing countries but particularly in sub-Saharan Africa where 24.5 million people live with HIV/AIDS, the impact of the epidemic on societal development is being harshly felt.

Education is hard hit, yet young people are in the forefront of the epidemic, with nearly 7 million of the 15-24 year olds in sub- Saharan Africa now living with the disease.

The 38-page UNICEF report details the enormous impact of HIV/AIDS among young people. It contains new statistics revealing the disturbing extent to which young people are unaware of the threat of HIV/AIDS; how the information deficit among girls increases their vulnerability to infection; and how the disease is methodically destroying Africa's future by claiming its teachers.

"It is through young people that we can break the chain of infection," Marjorie Newman-Williams, Director of the Division of Communications at UNICEF, told reporters here last week.

UNICEF data shows that HIV/AIDS infection rates in children and youth are increasing while rates in adults are levelling off. Almost a third of people with HIV/AIDS are between the ages of 15 and 24 - a total of some 10 million worldwide, the UNICEF report said.

"What this report tells us is that, so far, our efforts to stop the spread of HIV have not been sufficient," Bellamy said. "Particularly disturbing is the evidence that large numbers of young people in HIV-prevalent countries are not clear on how to protect themselves. Many do not know they are at risk at all - especially girls - and that is a disaster."

"Ninety-five percent of girls in Bangladesh cannot name a single method of preventing HIV/AIDS," Newman-Williams said.

In surveys conducted in a further 17 countries including Brazil, over half of adolescents could not name any method of protecting themselves against HIV/AIDS, the UNICEF study found.

"Girls and young women are 50 percent more likely to contract the disease than young men and boys," according to the report.

In several countries including Chad, Niger and Nepal, almost half of all girls age 15-19 do not know that a person who looks healthy can be infected with HIV and transmit it to others.

Furthermore, in a number of countries where AIDS is epidemic, including Haiti, Zambia and Zimbabwe, nearly half of the sexually active girls aged 15-19 believe they face no risk of contracting the disease, the UNICEF study found.

One-third of Botswana's population is currently infected with HIV/AIDS therefore over the next few years the country's population will shrink by one-third, Newman-Williams said.

India, with one percent of its population of 1 billion infected today, will be in the situation of Botswana in 10 years if nothing is done to improve the ability of primary care to reach children before they become sexually active, Newman-Williams emphasised.

Throughout the report UNICEF argues that HIV/AIDS education efforts must involve young people in their design and engage them at a young age. UNAIDS also stressed that AIDS education must be mainstreamed into basic education and non-formal education programmes.

Education programmes of this sort have shown success in Uganda, Malawi, Senegal and Zambia, where HIV rates have started falling.

UNICEF prevention efforts in Thailand are also bearing fruit, with surveys in the heavily infected Thai province of Chiang Rai showing declining infection rates among women, especially younger women. UNICEF said that it will focus the resources available to it on such programmes, that involve youth.

The UN agency recruited two young Africans to write essays for The Progress of Nations 2000 report.

African music star Femi Anikulapo-Kuti, whose well known father, Fela, died of AIDS in 1997, writes that "Africa and its friends need to confront AIDS with the same determination and unity as they would any enemy seeking to annihilate them."

President of Cote d'Ivoire's 100-member Children's Parliament, Hortense Bla Me, 19, writes that "peer education is the most powerful yet underused tool we have to confront HIV/AIDS."

UNICEF points out in its report that the majority of young people under the age of 25 are HIV-negative, including the vast majority of teens younger than 19. The agency said that cultivating among this majority the knowledge, attitudes and skills to protect themselves is key to preventing them from becoming infected as they grow older. (END/IPS/HE/mjs/da/00)
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