Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Reuters NewMedia - Thursday December 4, 2003
Manoah Esipisu
Presidents Ahmed Tejan Kabbah of Sierra Leone and Sam Nujoma of Namibia told a forum in Abuja ahead of the Commonwealth Summit this weekend that African countries had mounted a determined war on AIDS and hoped to reverse its spread.
"HIV/AIDS and corruption are to Africa what terrorism has become to the United States and a couple of other Western countries. A total war with no neutrals," said Kabbah, whose country is grappling with the wounds of a vicious civil war.
"We face a massive challenge and need the help of the international community to make further progress. Africans do not have the funds needed to put a huge dent in the AIDS pandemic. But we are starting to see progress," Nujoma said.
Zambian Health Minister Brian Chituwo brought home the case for further cash, saying his government was providing antiretroviral cocktails to only 7,000 people -- a tiny drop compared to the millions infected there.
Zambia is one of the worst affected countries in sub-Saharan Africa, with one in every five of its 10 million people hit by HIV or full-blown AIDS.
Chituwo said Zambia hoped to raise availability of antiretroviral drugs about 30 times to at least 200,000 people by the end of next year if it got pledged cash from the World Bank and a U.N. fund fighting AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
At least six million people living with HIV-AIDS in developing countries urgently need anti-retroviral drug treatment to stay alive and healthy.
But only between 300,000 and 400,000 are getting the costly drugs.
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