Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2000. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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San Francisco Examiner - July 16, 2000
The conference spotlighted hesitancy in South Africa's policy on the health problem. That's caused not only by the funding implications, but also President Thabo Mbeki's flirtation with AIDS "dissidents" who deny that HIV causes the deadly illness among millions of his constituents.
Former President Nelson Mandela at the end of the session brought the focus back to the urgency of action on a health problem so unimaginable that "decades have been chopped from life expectancy - half of our young people will die of AIDS."
Such visions from a part of the world where most AIDS victims live (with minimal medical attention) and where more than two-thirds of new HIV infections occur, have captured the attention of leaders who control some of the planet's important purse strings.
The U.S. House of Representatives last week approved a foreign-aid amendment (by Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland) adding $42 million to the $202 million previously proposed for international HIV-AIDS prevention and treatment.
The Durban meeting is said to have produced $700 million in pledges of assistance from around the world. Another $3 billion could be realized from the G-8 economic summit that begins Friday in Okinawa. Included in new money are $500 million earmarked by the World Bank, $100 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (half of it for Botswana) and $50 million in medicine and funding from Merck & Co.
Japan's aid to poor countries over the next five years includes $3 billion to combat AIDS, tuberculosis and other diseases.
Grants of this kind make economic as well as humanitarian sense. As it is, stricken African nations can hardly meet their annual debt-service of $14.5 billion to foreign creditors.
The wealthy countries should forgive this debt, allowing the money to be channeled into the fight against AIDS.
Africa's AIDS epidemic THE IMMENSITY of the AIDS crisis in sub-Saharan Africa was imprinted in the consciousness of world leaders as news issued daily from the just-concluded international conference in Durban. Most of the contemplated solutions bore daunting price tags in a continent of poor nations with little money for expensive new medicines, or even for the humble leg work needed to spread messages of prevention among illiterate potential victims.
The conference spotlighted hesitancy in South Africa's policy on the health problem. That's caused not only by the funding implications, but also President Thabo Mbeki's flirtation with AIDS "dissidents" who deny that HIV causes the deadly illness among millions of his constituents.
Former President Nelson Mandela at the end of the session brought the focus back to the urgency of action on a health problem so unimaginable that "decades have been chopped from life expectancy - half of our young people will die of AIDS."
Such visions from a part of the world where most AIDS victims live (with minimal medical attention) and where more than two-thirds of new HIV infections occur, have captured the attention of leaders who control some of the planet's important purse strings.
The U.S. House of Representatives last week approved a foreign-aid amendment (by Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland) adding $42 million to the $202 million previously proposed for international HIV-AIDS prevention and treatment.
The Durban meeting is said to have produced $700 million in pledges of assistance from around the world. Another $3 billion could be realized from the G-8 economic summit that begins Friday in Okinawa. Included in new money are $500 million earmarked by the World Bank, $100 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (half of it for Botswana) and $50 million in medicine and funding from Merck & Co.
Japan's aid to poor countries over the next five years includes $3 billion to combat AIDS, tuberculosis and other diseases.
Grants of this kind make economic as well as humanitarian sense. As it is, stricken African nations can hardly meet their annual debt-service of $14.5 billion to foreign creditors.
The wealthy countries should forgive this debt, allowing the money to be channeled into the fight against AIDS.
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