From: wsargeant@igc.apc.org (Winslow L. Sargeant)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african
Subject: IPS:Africa, leaders express political wi
Date: 25 Jul 92 17:08:11 GMT

/* Written 12:03 am  Jul 24, 1992 by newsdesk in cdp:ips.englibrary */
/* ---------- "AFRICA: LEADERS EXPRESS POLITICAL W" ---------- */
Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Area: Asia, eastern
Title: AFRICA: LEADERS EXPRESS POLITICAL WILL TO FIGHT AIDS


an inter press service feature

by peter da costa

dakar, jul 21 (ips) -- still struggling with the legacy of the
economic crisis of the 1980s, african leaders have pledged to
take on the fight against aids as a ''national responsibility
and international challenge''.

concluding the 28th organisation of african unity (oau)
summit in the senegalese capital, dakar, earlier this month,
they committed themselves to a far-reaching agenda for action
against acquired immune deficiency syndrome (aids).

with more than half the global figure of those infected with
human immuno-deficiency virus (hiv) that causes aids made up of
people in africa, the disease is now the biggest threat to
socio-economic development of the continent.

according to the world health organisation (who), some seven
million people in africa are hiv-positive, while another million
either have full-blown aids or are already dead from the
syndrome.

who projects that by year 2000 some 14 million adults and
four million children in africa will be hiv-positive. what is
worse, the world body predicts, the disease will have orphaned
10 million children by that time.

in collectively adopting what on paper is a no-holds-barred
declaration on the aids pandemic, africa's leaders have provided
the long-awaited political support that scientists have been
demanding to back-stop their war against the disease.

individual heads of state have previously gone on record with
strong statements recognising their internal aids problem and
promising action.

recognition by the 51 oau-member states that a concrete
action plan to fight aids should be put in motion, represents
their strongest declaration of intent since the disease surfaced
in the early 1980s.

the dakar declaration recognises prevention as the key to
slowing the disease's spread. it also highlights the need for a
sustained medical package to curb transmission and encourage
community-based care for the infected.

the need for vigorous preventive education is also
highlighted in the articulation that ''the hope of africa is in
its younger generation, who still have a chance to escape
infection''. (more/ips)


africa: leaders (2)

a key pledge by the african leaders is to adopt by mid-1993 a
comprehensive aids care programme and a ''rational plan for the
family or community-based care and support of aids survivors,
including orphans''.

africa's health ministers meeting in geneva early this year
bemoaned the lack of concentrated home-grown research efforts
into the pandemic.

oau leaders have promised to formulate a national plan of
action for promoting and coordinating aids research which will
include an operational code of ethics.

''while collaboration between scientists from developed
countries and those from africa should continue to be promoted
and supported'', the declaration says, ''it is important to
strengthen and promote (africa's) research capacity''.

key non-governmental organisations will be integrated into
national aids programmes. internal resources will be mobilised
to help set up effective high-level mechanisms for coordination
between the different sectors.

with a total foreign debt estimated at 300 billion dollars,
the continent cannot rely on internally-generated funds for the
anti-aids crusade.

the summit conceded the battle would place a drain on health
care resources, reduce industrial and agricultural production
and result in loss of educated professionals, consumers and
purchasing power.

stressing the importance of knowledge-sharing in the research
effort to find effective drugs and vaccines against aids, the
oau declaration proposes by the end of 1994 to come up with a
consolidated plan of action, complete with costings, to attract
the necessary finance.

nigeria's health minister, dr olikoye ransome-kuti believes
little progress can be made without government support. ''we
will have to do everything on the prevention of sexual
transmission levels by making available condoms and devising
effective education campaigns'', he says.

according to who statistics, developing countries are most at
risk, accounting for over 90 percent of all new aids infections.

dr michael merson, director of the global programme on aids,
says the who-initiated global strategy for the prevention and
control of the disease has been substantially updated in view of
projections that by the year 2000 as many as 40 million people
worldwide will have been affected by hiv. (end/ips/pdc/mc/ar/92)