DATE=6/8/2000
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=AIDS / SECURITY
NUMBER=5-46462
BYLINE=ALEXEY VOLYNETS
DATELINE=NEW YORK
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
(Voiced by Larry Freund)
INTRO: Foreign policy and health experts are
showing growing concern about the economic and
security ramifications of the worldwide AIDS
epidemic. VOA's Alexey Volynets reports from New
York.
TEXT: That AIDS is a dangerous epidemic is common
knowledge. But the perception of AIDS as a threat
to the national security of every country in the
world is relatively new and not widely recognized
by the public. A panel of experts, speaking in
New York at the Council on Foreign Relations, a
privately supported organization, discussed the
global burden of AIDS from that new perspective.
Donna Shalala, the U-S Secretary of Health and
Human Services, says that while Africa remains a
global epicenter of the AIDS epidemic, the spread
of the AIDS virus through other regions is also
very alarming.
/// SHALALA ACT ///
(OPT) This very day, a 15-year old in
Zambia has a 60 percent chance of dying of
AIDS. By the end of this decade, more than
40 million children in Africa will have
lost one or more parents to the disease.
The life expectancy in Sub-Saharan Africa
may drop to an average of 45 years, a level
not seen since the 1950's. While we are
focused a little on Africa tonight, (END
OPT) the potential for explosive epidemics
in Asia, the former Soviet Union, parts of
Eastern Europe are just as threatening. In
this year, India could become the country
with the largest number of new infections.
By 2010, Asia may even surpass Africa in
the number of H-I-V infected people.
/// END ACT ///
International health authorities say AIDS is now
the first cause of death in Africa. It is
surpassing deaths from such diseases as malaria
as well as from respiratory tract and other
infections. And because of the undeveloped
health-care infrastructure in many African
countries, 95 percent of Africans who carry the
virus are not aware of it.
AIDS is having an unprecedented impact on
Africa's economic, social and political
stability. David Bloom, Professor of Economics
and Demography at Harvard University, says that
generally, a five-year change in life expectancy
corresponds to a one-half percentage point change
in income growth.
/// BLOOM ACT ///
When we are talking about a 20-year change
in life expectancy, we are talking about a
two percentage point change in growth rate
of income. That is about what income grows
in the world per year: two to three
percent. So we are talking about
essentially whipping out in many countries
all income growth. (OPT) Incomes could
double in 35 years, growing at two present
per year. But instead they are going to
stay the same because of the AIDS epidemic
in many countries. (END OPT)
/// END ACT ///
Health experts say that in the modern world, it
is impossible to draw boundaries and localize the
virus to a particular region. In a short 20
years, from 20 to 33 million people have been
infected worldwide. Richard Holbrooke, the U-S
Representative to the United Nations, says that
this year AIDS officially became an international
security concern.
/// HOLBROOKE ACT ///
On January 10th of this year in the four-
thousand-and-seventy-eighth meting of the
Security Council since 1945, a health issue
was discussed for the first time. We need
to get the word out to the rest of the
world. AIDS is a national security threat
to every country in the world. And I
stress, not just to Sub-Saharan Africa.
/// END ACT ///
The United States, Great Britain and Canada are
taking the lead in the financial support for
international programs to prevent the spread of
the AIDS epidemic. However, Ambassador Holbrooke
says the United Nations must also deal with its
own AIDS problem.
//SECOND HOLBROOKE ACT ///
Here we get into one of the ugliest secret
truths that everybody knows about AIDS: it
is spread by U-N peacekeepers. I say that
with the greatest of reluctance, but it is
true. We have now stated that we will never
again vote for a peacekeeping resolution in
the Security Council that does not contain
a section on AIDS.
/// END ACT ///
The United States is now demanding that the
United Nations include actions to combat AIDS in
all its preparations for peacekeeping operations,
including testing of the troops.
As for humanitarian programs, the major goal now
is to reduce the number of new AIDS infections,
particularly prenatal transmissions. According
to U-S health official Donna Shalala, in some
countries in Sub-Saharan Africa AIDS infection
among pregnant women is greater than 40 percent.
Most of the experts speaking at the Council on
Foreign Relations stressed that although there is
no cure for AIDS now, the epidemic should not be
considered hopeless even in relatively poor
regions of the world. During the last several
years, they said, Senegal, Uganda, and Thailand
greatly decreased their rates of the disease.
Experts are analyzing why that happened and hope
to duplicate that experience in other countries.
(Signed)
NEB/NY/AKV/LSF/ENE/PW
4
4
08-Jun-2000 11:37 AM EDT (08-Jun-2000 1537 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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