DATE=7/3/2000
TYPE=U-S OPINION ROUNDUP
TITLE=AIDS DEVASTATES AFRICA
NUMBER=6-11904
BYLINE=ANDREW GUTHRIE
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
EDITOR=ASSIGNMENTS
TELEPHONE=619-3335
INTERNET=YES
CONTENT=
INTRO: A new U-N report from the world body's AIDS
monitoring unit on the toll in sub-Saharan Africa, has
set the computers humming in editorial offices of this
country's newspapers. We get a sampling now from
____________ in today's U-S Opinion roundup.
TEXT: The report from U-N-AIDS paints a picture of
nothing short of an Apocalypse, as Newsday on New
York's Long Island describes it. A whole generation
of young people in most nations below the Sahara will
be lost to the sexually transmitted disease. This U-N
report comes on the heels of another, a survey of the
same region by the U-S Central Intelligence Agency
which came to roughly the same conclusions.
The U-N document says that AIDS has killed almost as
many people in sub-Saharan Africa as the number of
people killed by bubonic plague during the Middle
Ages. Africa now accounts for 83-percent of the
world's AIDS deaths.
/// OPT /// Several things are compounding the
problem. One is the lack of money for health care in
Africa and the high cost of anti-AIDS drugs used in
wealthy nations. Another is a lack of leadership on
the part of many African presidents, and still another
are a series of widespread but fallacious beliefs
among the people about how they can catch AIDS.
Almost all doctors say the H-I-V (human
immunodeficiency virus) virus that causes AIDS
(acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) is passed from
person-to-person during sexual intercourse or other
sexual contact, or via infected blood such as is
traded by drug addicts using unclean needles, or from
an infected mother to her child before birth. ///END
OPT /// We begin our sampling of reaction to the
report in Texas, with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
VOICE: On a small planet, the fatal disease is
everyone's problem. The worst is yet to come,
but there is still hope that the AIDS pandemic
can be curbed. ... The United Nations agency
that monitors the progress of the disease, has
issued some grim new findings. Among them are:
the total number of people worldwide infected by
the ... virus ... has risen from 29-point-four
million in 1996 to 34-point-three million today.
Deaths from AIDS have increased from six-point
four million to 18-point-eight-million during
the same period. ... Because the rate of
...infection has decreased dramatically in the
United States, many Americans may be tempted to
dismiss the plight of Africa. But there are two
good reasons besides humanitarian empathy to be
concerned. The first is that because of modern
transportation, AIDS will remain a threat to
everyone on the planet until it has brought
under control. Crises are building in Asia. The
other is economic self-interest. In the long
term, the United States and other industrialized
nations will need Africa's raw materials, labor,
and markets.
TEXT: The St. Petersburg [Florida] Times laments:
VOICE: Worse than any flood, any famine, any
war, AIDS is laying waste to the people of sub-
Saharan Africa. In a statistic so daunting it
can barely be fathomed, the United Nations has
predicted that half of all 15-year-olds in the
worst-hit countries in Africa will die of AIDS,
even if by some miracle the rate of infection is
slowed. An entire continent of adults is dying
of a disease that is eminently preventable.
...Containing the spread of AIDS should beat the
top of the world's agenda. /// OPT ///
Certainly, the wealthier nations, such as ours,
should contribute mightily to the cause, but to
rein in this plague, African countries have to
make it an overriding priority. ... This is an
international tragedy on the scale of a world
war. It deserves the attention, commitment and
resources such a war would bring. /// END OPT
///
TEXT: The Chicago Tribune is also alarmed by the
study, suggesting:
VOICE: The United Nations ... report ...should
be a call to arms for health workers, individual
countries and the international community to
redouble their efforts to battle a disease that
many Americans wrongly think has been brought
under control. And the fact that the worst news
is in Africa ...should be a wakeup call for
Americans as well, who are not immune to the
fallout and should not be disinterested in
Africa's agony.
TEXT: One of the most arresting headlines on any
editorial comes from Newsday, on New York's Long
Island, where the paper calls what is going on an
"African Apocalypse."
VOICE: Most African nations found it easier to
ignore the crisis than to start strict
prevention programs. So now, 20-years into the
epidemic, time has run out. The disaster has
arrived with shocking force in southern Africa -
and yes, it is awful beyond all previous
predictions. ... U-N-AIDS, which is
coordinating the global fight ...[has] released
some statistics: In Botswana, 36-percent of all
adults are infected with H-I-V. In relatively
well-off South Africa, the figure is 20-percent.
In Zimbabwe it is 26-percent. ... In all,
reckons a U-S intelligence report, 25-percent of
southern Africa's population could die before
the epidemic runs its course. The area could
devolve into perilous chaos as armies are sapped
and work forces die away.
TEXT: But in carefully studying the report, The New
York Times finds at least something hopeful out of the
grim statistics.
VOICE: U-N-AIDS has reported considerable
success in Uganda and Senegal, where advertising
campaigns and educational efforts have lowered
infection rates. They key to such improvements
is recognition by the African governments that
the AIDS crisis is a priority. Domestic
commitment and international support are
critical to saving Africa's next generation.
TEXT: The Detroit Free Press is upset by another key
factor in the spread of the disease around Africa, the
lack of leadership.
VOICE: ... most Africa leaders are silent on
the issue; others express overt skepticism.
Their lack of leadership only compounds the
tragedy. Not a single African head of state
bothered to attend the 1999 World Conference on
AIDS held in Zambia. Zimbabwean President
Robert Mugabe merely engages in a homophobic
rant against his own citizens, and South African
President Thabo Mbeki has publicly questioned
studies confirming that H-I-V causes AIDS. ///
OPT ///[Mr.] Mbeki has been reluctant to give
government approval to treat poor infected women
with A-Z-T (the drug "zidovudine," a very strong
antiviral drug in a new family of medicines
called reverse transcriptase inhibitors). As
leaders ignore the fatal disease, business
managers in countries such as Zambia, South
Africa and Zimbabwe factor it into their hiring
practices. They hire two or three people for
every job assuming one will die fairly soon.
/// END OPT /// Africa certainly needs help in
this fight, and [the recent] ... announcement
that the major drug companies would slash prices
on AIDS drugs for Africa is a start. Freeing up
debt owed to this country and the International
Monetary Fund would let African nations put more
money into the AIDS battle and the health care
system in general. More U-S aid focused on
health care would help too. But the continent's
leaders cannot expect outside countries to take
this problem seriously if they do not. Had they
heeded warnings from health experts years ago
and educated the public ... their people might
not be so besieged now.
TEXT: On that assessment, we conclude this sampling
of editorial comment on recent disclosures of the
scope of the current AIDS epidemic in Sub-Saharan
Africa.
NEB/ANG/RAE
03-Jul-2000 14:52 PM EDT (03-Jul-2000 1852 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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