United Press International - Monday, 11 December, 2000
Eli J. Lake

"Last year, my government, through the Centers for Disease Control, contributed almost $5 million to support Botswana's efforts," Albright said to a crowd at the Old Naledi Mother-to-Child HIV Transmission Clinic. "This year, our commitment will not falter."

Of the $5 million approximately $1.2 million will go to build two-room trailers with televisions and video cassette recorders to play an AIDS-awareness tape encouraging pregnant women to be tested for HIV. Overall, the United States will give more than $400 million for its total international AIDS budget.

Albright has elevated the issue of AIDS to a national security concern, giving the matter to a higher priority in Washington and in the international community. She points to a meeting with the U.N. Security Council to discuss AIDS, something the panel had never broached before, with pride.

And the security implications of AIDS in Botswana are clear. Thirty-six percent of adults aged 15-49 years are infected with HIV and many of those people cross the country's borders for work and sometimes for pleasure. The infection rate for pregnant women in Botswana is around 40 percent and in some areas it is as high as 50 percent. Of the 60,000 babies born each year in the country, about 24,000 are exposed to HIV in the womb or through breast feeding.

Botswana's Health Minister Joy Phumaphi said the success of the counseling and testing initiative "depends a lot on the extent to which mothers want to participate in the process."

Getting women to test themselves for AIDS has been a problem. Albright sat with women being treated by the center, three of who said they had not yet been tested for the virus. When asked why, they shrugged and smiled, saying they were afraid of the results. The secretary of state replied that such medical tests, whether or positive or negative, were accompanied by a sense of calm after knowing the results.

But for many women in Southern Africa news of an HIV infection is met with ostracization from the community and beatings from husbands. David Ngele, a driver for the center who is HIV positive, said, "Sex is just something we don't talk about here." Dr. Thomas Kenyon the director of the Center for Disease Control's Botswana project said, "While there is a lot of awareness about AIDS, there is still accompanying ignorance about modes of transmission, it's highly stigmatized, people are reluctant to come forward for testing."

One aspect of the program likely to fight the stigma surrounding AIDS is the participation of the pop singer Mayoress, also known as Sister. She appears on the video and chose Monday to announce that she was HIV positive. Albright said the singer "is a wonderful example of what we can all accomplish when we confront life's most daunting challenges with courage." Because she was tested early and received treatment, her son did not contract the virus. Inside the clinic, Mayoress told the women, "I am living a happier life and working and still a musician."

Because diamond-rich Botswana is one of the strongest economies in the region, it can afford to treat pregnant women with AZT, an option other poorer countries like South Africa do not have because of the high cost.

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