AFRICA: AIDS conference ends with appeal to donors

Delegates at the 12th International Conference on AIDS and STDs in Africa (ICASA) have appealed to donors to support the local production of generic drugs and to subsidise the purchase of antiretrovirals (ARVs).

Wrapping up the conference on Thursday 13 December, delegates also called on decision-makers to speed up their fight against poverty and to create an environment which promotes the access and rights of HIV/AIDS sufferers.

"Ouagadougou 2001 is the landmark for the beginning of a new era in the fight against AIDS, for it bears hope for thousands of our HIV-positive brothers and sisters, and for the people and our children who are anxious about pessimistic projections for Africa in 10 to 20 years if we do not turn back the trends," said Professor Robert Soudre who chaired the conference.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Envoy for AIDS in Africa, Stephen Lewis, pledged full support to initiatives in Africa. "We are your natural allies. We will not let you down," he said.

About 5,000 delegates from 61 countries took part in the five-day conference, with debates focused on access to care and treatment in Africa. Only 30,000 of the 28.1 million people living with HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa receive ARVs.

In a statement released on Monday, UNAIDS said there was broad agreement that scaling up AIDS efforts from community to national level was essential to link local, district, national and regional decision-making, to overcome rural-urban divides, and to involve all social and economic sectors in the response to AIDS.

"These efforts will cost money - to effectively respond to the epidemic, AIDS spending in developing countries must rise to US $7-10 billion a year. In sub-Saharan Africa, current spending is only a 10th of the US $4 billion the continent needs," the statement said.

In Ouagadougou, delegates urged African heads of state to honour promises to allocate 15 percent of their budgets each year to fighting HIV/AIDS. Funds could come from the UN's Global Fund against Malaria, AIDS and TB, they said. So far the fund has raised only US $1.6 billion of the anticipated US $10 billion. Annan is expected to launch the fund in January 2002, but a wide range of activists, non-governmental organisations and HIV/AIDS associations called this week for the money to be spent mainly on buying antiretrovirals, and on the promotion of access to care in developing countries, particularly in Africa.

In their appeal, they urged the working group of the global fund to earmark a minimum of 30 percent to fund drugs purchases. "We have shown in Ouagadougou that there are drugs to relieve lives of patients, but someone must pay for it," said Gael Krikorian of ActUp, a French anti-AIDS organisation.

"From the support we heard here from decision makers, doctors, researchers and victims, and this the first time, there is hope that there can be a breakthrough," she said.

"I think our objectives have been met at this conference because from now on scientists agree that our medicine contributes in the fight against AIDS and we are going to move forwards to find more molecules that can combat AIDS," declared Catholic priest Jacques Simpore, who is treating some 800 HIV/Aids victims in Ouagadougou with herbal medicine.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) supports this project and hopes to improve its organisation. Research indicates that 85 percent of HIV-positive people in sub-Saharan Africa visit a traditional healer when they first get sick and about 90 percent of HIV-positive people who know their status go to a traditional healer first.

About 2,500 of community organisations participated to the conference. This year's theme was "The community commits itself". The next conference will take place in 2003 in Nairobi, with the theme "Access to care and treatment. Challenges".

Theme (s): Care/Treatment - PlusNews,

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]