Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Fides Service) – During the 2nd Summit meeting of the African Union, AU held recently in Maputo, Mozambique, for the first time the Africa Leaders put health emergencies HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria as a priority on the agenda. Sixty million Africans suffer from HIV/AIDS. In many of the worst afflicted countries every day as many as 1000 people, adults and children die. Experts working to eliminate AIDS say that prevention programmes must be boosted. In particular they stress the need to prevent transmission of the disease from mother to child. In Sub Saharan Africa 58% of those with AIDS are women.
The summit, attended by heads of state, representatives of the United Nations, World Bank, Global Fund and other major organisations was the first to be organised also as a video conference connected with 20 sites all over Africa. Regional Director of the World Health Organisation, Ebrahim Malick Samba said that HIV/AIDS, malaria and TB “are partly caused by poverty and that they thrive on poverty”. It Africa it is absolutely necessary to intensify research on these diseases and to invest much more money in this research. President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria said that 15% of subsides in not enough to fight all three diseases and he stressed the importance of health education particularly in rural areas.
At the end of the video-conference Mozambique foreign minister Leonardo Simao said that the leaders had shown their "determination” in the struggle to eliminate HIV/AIDS, malaria and TB and he launched an appeal to the international community to increases subsidies to at least 3 billion dollars per year.
The World Health Organisation says that 10.5 billion dollars are necessary for prevention, treatment and support programmes in low or average income countries. The Mozambican government has promised to guarantee more information for the people and better training for health care workers. AP (Fides Service 14/7/2003 EM lines 32 Words: 366)
