GABORONE (AFP) - The AIDS pandemic in Africa could provoke civil wars and
wars between states, a Botswanan army general warned Africa's first military
conference on the pandemic.
Major
General Bakwena Oitsile told the meeting, attended by representatives of
military forces in sub-Saharan countries, that the high infection rate in the
region posed a threat to security as well as grave health concerns.
"This could be a source for intra- and inter-state conflict," he
said.
"If the security forces become weaker due to ill health, the countries'
constitutions could easily be challenged. The political structures that ensure
democratic governance could be threatened."
The four-day conference is focusing on how to improve research into HIV and
AIDS, which are responsible up to 60 percent of the deaths among military
personnel in the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC).
Oitsile added: "The HIV/AIDS pandemic has gone beyond the purview of the
health sector. It requires mobilisation of resources and human capacity in all
sectors including the military.
US ambassador to Botswana Joseph Huggins pledged that his country would
support African defence forces in their fight against AIDS.
"I applaud each of you; your work is important to all of the peoples of
the world and absolutely critical to your countries. Together, we will not fail
in the struggle against this killer disease," Huggins said.
"HIV/AIDS is a global tragedy; but for Africa, the degree of pain and
human suffering from the disease can be multiplied many times over.
"Moreover, the problem becomes more ominous in the realisation that many
militaries in Africa experience readiness problems due to high rates of HIV/AIDS
among their personnel," Huggins added.
"The leaders of these countries recognise the importance of a viable
military force in maintaining peace and stability among their citizenry and with
neighbouring nations," he said.
Africa is the continent the worst affected by AIDS, with close to 30 million
people infected south of the Sahara and an estimated three million deaths caused
by AIDS in 2002.
Its overall adult prevalence rate is nine percent, but in southern Africa
that rate is 20 percent.
CAPE TOWN (AFP) - South Africa's leading AIDS activist Zackie Achmat
announced he had taken his first antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, which he had
refused to do until the government committed to a national AIDS plan.
"That's
what I have to take to keep me alive; I hope for the next 20 years," the
SAPA news agency quoted Achmat as saying, as he held up a package of the drugs
at a media briefing in Cape Town.
"We made the decision for me to take the treatment at a national
conference last month," Achmat said, referring to his AIDS lobby group, the
Treatment Action Campaign (TAC).
Previously Achmat had refused to take ARV's until the government committed to
a plan to roll out treatment for all South Africans with HIV/AIDS.
But Achmat on Monday told AFP: "We all recognise that the process
government has committed to is irreversible. It's not a question of if, but when
and how."
The South African government ended years of denial last month by recognising
the efficacy of antiretroviral drugs in fighting AIDS, and launched a plan to
provide the drugs to its five million HIV-positive citizens.
The TAC has launched a project to provide AIDS treatment to activists and
community members and said at Monday's briefing that it hoped to gather
sufficient funding to put 1,000 people on ARV treatment by the end of 2004.
Achmat said he took his first pill on Thursday, in the company of a few
friends and family.
Apart from one really bad headache and spells of light-headedness there had
been no serious side effects, he said.
He is taking the generic drug triomune, a combination of stavudine,
lamivudene and a version of nevirapine.
Achmat said he was importing the pills, which cost him 300 rand (39 dollars,
35 euros) per month from India, where they were manufactured under a special
dispensation from the South African Medicines Control Council.
The components of triomune are all patented under brand names in South
Africa.
South Africa has one of the highest AIDS rates in the world with 360,000
deaths in 2001 -- an average of almost 1,000 deaths per day.
ADDIS ABABA (AFP) - Ethiopia launched a UN-sponsored programme to prevent
mothers from transmitting HIV/AIDS to their newborn children.
"AIDS could soon become the main cause of death in children under the
age of five -- worse than other major causes such as diarrhoea and respiratory
disease," said Aseged Weldu, head of the health ministry's HIV/AIDS
Surveillance and Control section, on Monday.
Some 2.2 million Ethiopians are currently infected with HIV including 200,000
children, Aseged said at the launch of the programme run jointly by the UN
Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the government with seven million dollars in
funding from the United States.
UNICEF's country director Bjorn Ljungqvist told a press conference afterward
that 34-40 percent of HIV infection in Ethiopian children is thought to occur
through mother-to-child transmission.
"Creating awareness and providing treatment will mean not only
preventing it, but also saving a child's life," he said.
Tesfay Gabre-Kidan of the US Centers for Disease Control told AFP that the
new US funding would also go towards the provision of anti-retroviral therapy,
which now costs 250 to 800 birr (about 35 to 100 dollars) per month in a country
where average per capita income is between 80 and 100 dollars per year.
The health ministry estimates the number of AIDS orphans in the Horn of
Africa country at 1.2 million and says the figure will rise to 2.1 million by
2014.
By Dean Yates
WAMENA, Indonesia (Reuters) - Tucking into bowls of meatball soup and sipping
tea, the nine teenage girls look like friends swapping gossip on a Saturday
night in the highland town of Wamena in Indonesia's remote Papua province.
They are actually taking a break from selling their bodies around the corner
on a dusty Wamena street for as little as $6.
All have heard of AIDS, they know how it is spread and they are scared. But
they are a minority in this giant province nearly the size of France, where
health experts say many people have never heard of the disease and few know how
to use a condom.
To make matters worse, Papua already has one-third of Indonesia's recorded
HIV/AIDS cases, yet less than one percent of its population. Some experts fear
five percent of the province could be HIV positive, and warn of an African-style
epidemic in an area where hospital facilities are rudimentary at best.
"Papuan men say they wouldn't be satisfied if they used a condom,"
said Gustim Pigmo, at 18 one of the oldest in the group, pulling a wool cap
tight over her head to keep out the highland cold. The youngest girl was 14.
With their tight curly hair and adorned with tribal jewelry, the girls looked
like they should be on the pages of National Geographic, not getting ready to
hustle for sex.
Only last week, the United Nations warned Asian leaders they were ignoring a
looming African-style HIV/AIDS crisis.
Aggravating the situation in Papua, health experts said, was a belief that
Jakarta introduced the disease in the 1990s to try to wipe out the indigenous
population in one of the country's two separatist hot spots.
Papua has Indonesia's highest prevalence of AIDS even though it recorded its
first HIV case just 10 years ago and testing facilities exist only in big
centers.
Health experts said little testing for example has been done since 2000 in
Wamena -- hub of the Baliem Valley where some tribes only emerged from the Stone
Age decades ago.
SPREADING QUICKLY
"The situation is bad and I would say getting worse," said Chris
Green, from the Spiritia Foundation, an HIV/AIDS non-governmental organization
in Jakarta.
"Some estimates put the number of people infected at five percent of the
population, which is very high even by African proportions. ... We're looking at
the potential for a community, or a number of communities, to almost
disappear," he said.
Health experts said the disease was spreading rapidly due to several factors
-- promiscuity, rituals in some Papuan tribes where partner swapping takes
place, little foreplay which increased the risk of abrasions, poor education
about AIDS and a lack of condoms.
Few places could be as remote as poverty-stricken Papua, home to two million
people, including hundreds of tribes that speak 250 different languages. Yet the
disease has penetrated deep into the jungles.
Papua is largely Christian or animist, unlike Indonesia which is mainly
Muslim. Wamena is 2,200 miles east of Jakarta and the Baliem valley can only be
reached by plane.
One man trying to raise awareness is Gunawan Ingkokusumo, head of the USAID-funded
AksiStopAIDS network in Papua.
His figures show that as of December, there were 1,263 recorded HIV/AIDS
cases in Papua against 3,782 nationally. He said the rate of HIV infection could
be five percent.
The view among many Papuans that Indonesia had intentionally brought the
disease in has made calm debate unlikely and muted the response from local
leaders, experts said.
Ingkokusumo said the reluctance to address the issue was the key obstacle to
action. Several high-profile community leaders interviewed by Reuters accused
Jakarta of introducing the disease.
Green said there were similarities with parts of Africa, with migrant
populations working near mining and logging operations. Thousands of soldiers
are also spread throughout Papua.
Silvia Tamahiwu, who runs a small aid group in Wamena that has worked with
young prostitutes, estimated 100 girls were selling sex in the town of 15,000
people.
As the nine girls finishing eating, some said they feared they had HIV. But
they had to keep working for the money.
"We are all scared, but what can we do," said Mariee Kiwo,
squeezing a wooden Christian cross around her neck.
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - The United States gave $7 million on Monday to curb
the spread of mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS, a major killer of
children under five years of age in Ethiopia.
The Horn of Africa country will receive the money under President Bush's
prevention of mother-to-child transmission initiative, the U.S. ambassador to
Ethiopia, Aurelia Brazeal told a news conference.
Once implemented, several medical centers in every region of the country of
67 million people would benefit, Brazeal said.
Asseged Woldu, head of Ethiopia's Disease Prevention and Control Department
said about 1.1 million Ethiopian mothers are living with HIV/AIDS.
Mother-to-child transmission ranks second to unprotected sex in the transmission
of the disease.
"AIDS could soon become the major cause of death in children under the
ages of five, worse than other major causes such as diarrhea and respiratory
infections," he said.
Of the total 2.2 million HIV infected people in Ethiopia, 200,000 are
children under five, he added.
He said it was estimated that the number of AIDS orphans in Ethiopia would
increase to 2.1 million by 2014, from the estimated 1.2 million in 2002.
Ethiopia ranks third after South Africa and Nigeria in sub-Saharan Africa in
absolute numbers of people infected with HIV/AIDS.
