DATE=1/26/2000
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=IVORY COAST / AIDS
NUMBER=5-45311
BYLINE=LAURIE KASSMAN
DATELINE=ABIDJAN
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: The United Nations is refocusing world
attention on the scourge of AIDS in Africa. Last year
alone, more than two-million-500-thousand people
worldwide died of AIDS, 85 percent of them in Africa.
More than 23-million Africans are infected with the
AIDS virus, H-I-V. V-O-A Correspondent Laurie Kassman
in Abidjan spoke with the head of Ivory Coast's anti-
AIDS program about the fight to curb the epidemic.
TEXT: The statistics are staggering. Roughly ten
percent of Ivory Coast's 15-million inhabitants are
infected with the AIDS virus. Nearly one-fifth of
those infected are teenagers and pregnant women.
The country's public health service estimates that
more than 12 percent of the population will be H-I-V-
positive by the year 2005 and about two-thousand will
die each week from the virus.
More than 420-thousand have already perished in Ivory
Coast since the first cases were reported in 1985.
Medical researchers say prostitutes and their clients,
soldiers on foreign missions, and sexually active
teenagers are at highest risk.
/// OPT /// Why has AIDS spread so much in Ivory
Coast? Medical researchers point to Abidjan's active
port and its open-door policies that attract foreign
commerce and international visitors. AIDS officials
also say the numbers are higher than in neighboring
countries because reporting methods in Ivory Coast
have been more accurate. /// END OPT ///
The challenge now is to curb the epidemic. That task
belongs to Adama Sanogo, who directs Ivory Coast's
National Program to Fight AIDS.
As a former military doctor he knows first-hand just
how devastating the disease can be.
Dr. Sanogo says Ivory Coast's army has lost the
equivalent of one battallion to the AIDS virus in the
past five years -- more than 400 men, or ten soldiers
a month.
/// SANOGO ACT ONE - IN FRENCH - FADE UNDER ///
Everyone agrees on the need to change individual
behavior but the problem is it takes time and, he
says, time is running out.
The Ivory Coast has implemented a massive information
campaign about the dangers of AIDS and how to prevent
it. But the campaign has mostly concentrated on the
urban areas.
Dr Sanogo tells V-O-A a top priority for him now is to
extend that program into the countryside. The
information campaign uses different organizations,
from social to religious groups, to get the message
out.
But information campaigns and treatments all cost
money, something in short supply these days. The
country's resources are limited. Like its neighbors,
Ivory Coast depends heavily on foreign financial and
technical assistance, which often still is not
enough.
A U-S sponsored AIDS research project, run by the
Atlanta-based Center for Disease Control, has been
tracking and studying the epidemic in Ivory Coast for
the past ten years. The project, RETRO, as it is
called, also tests AIDS treatments for infected
pregnant women to try to stop the infection from
spreading to their unborn children.
/// OPT /// RETRO Director Terence Chorba remains
optimistic despite the relentless cycle of despair and
death.
/// OPT // CHORBA ACT ///
The ultimate goal that we all have in mind-the dream
is that the day will come when the story of H-I-V is
the story of smallpox -- that we can develop a vaccine
that we can use on a population basis to put an end to
this epidemic.
/// END ACT // END OPT ///
Doctors from the RETRO project also help Ivoirian
counselers provide advice on safe sex and other
preventive methods to Abidjan's women -- especially
the high-risk prostitute population. One positive
result has been a sharp increase in the sale of male
condoms -- ten times higher today than ten years ago.
But Dr Sanogo insists the real barrier is
psychological -- getting people to change their sexual
behavior. His new slogan is "We're tired of AIDS,
let's change our ways."
/// SANOGO ACT TWO - IN FRENCH - FADE UNDER ///
Everyone needs to find his own solution. Dr. Sanogo
says nobody can impose a solution on his neighbor, but
we can help someone make the right choice by giving
him all the information he needs to make that
decision.
Information campaigns also target teenagers, who
represent more than one-third of the population and
another high risk group.
Dr. Sanogo says his goal is to protect Ivory Coast's
youth from falling victim to AIDS. Otherwise, he
says, the country's future will be lost too. (Signed)
NEB/LMK/JWH
26-Jan-2000 07:34 AM EDT (26-Jan-2000 1234 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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