Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1999. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Reuters NewMedia - September 12, 1999

In a welcoming speech at the 11th International Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases (ICASA), Sitali spoke of the desperation in the anti-AIDS campaign, and of how many children had been condemned to orphanhood by AIDS.

"Think about us, the children. We also want a share of the future, as doctors, teachers, lawyers, and as parents with our own children," said Sitali, adding that many of her own friends were AIDS orphans.

Sitali's message was taken up by luminaries at the conference, including U.N. AIDS agency chief Peter Piot and World Bank Vice President Callisto Madavo.

AIDS support groups, the World Health Organization and Zambian Health Minister Nkandu Luo called on governments to declare AIDS an emergency.

"It is a state of emergency," said Piot. "That requires emergency measures, with full human and financial support. That is the only way we might make progress."

Speakers at the opening ceremony lamented that political will for the struggle with AIDS on the continent was lacking at a time when in some countries one in three and one in two people were infected.

ICASA has brought together some 5,000 people, including researchers, pharmaceutical industry executives and government officials. It will be dominated by research on the continent as well as new initiatives to help sufferers.

Songs, dances and prayers marked the opening ceremony.

Several thousand people were crammed into the conference room in less than ideal conditions. Translation equipment was only available to VIPs.

The conference was to have been opened by Zambian President Frederick Chiluba but officials said he was away in the northern town of Ndola, where he was attending a meeting of a Joint Military Commission set up to oversee a peace plan in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo.

The World Bank's Madavo said up to 11 million people in Africa had died from AIDS while 22.5 million others were infected, and it required extraordinary measures by African governments to stem its spread.

Madavo said Uganda and Senegal, where governments had tackled the problem early, were seeing positive results in the struggle. But he said rich countries had to support these efforts if overall success was to be seen. Representatives of AIDS sufferers said they wanted easier access to drugs, and to be consulted when policies to fight AIDS were drawn up by governments.

They complained that community groups dealing with AIDS were treated as disruptions to normal decision-making, and this had heavily impaired their efforts.

"It is a puzzle that millions of dollars can be spent on guns by African states when there is no money for health, for AIDS," said Moustapha Gueye, director of the African Council of AIDS Service Organizations.
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