Crisis in Africa

84% of the world's deaths from AIDS have been in Africa.
90% of babies born with AIDS are born in Africa.

The spread of AIDS is worse in Africa than anywhere else in the world:
in 1999, new cases of infection in sub-Saharan Africa were 300% higher than the next worst area (south & south-east Asia).

AIDS - Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, a disease that is very often deadly. It weakens the ability of the body to fight infection.

INFECTION: a disease caused by bacteria or virus

In the rich world, many patients with HIV have access to drugs and health care which are helping to control the AIDS epidemic but, in Africa, the world is doing little to try to solve the crisis:

• The rich world talks about the problem of AIDS in Africa, but does not give the money that is needed;
• The drug companies charge too much for their drugs;
• Some African leaders try to ignore the problem.

HIV: "Human Immunodeficiency-Virus" - the virus that causes AIDS

EPIDEMIC: a large increase in number of cases of an illness

IGNORE THE PROBLEM: to act as if the problem does not exist, to pretend that the problem does not exist

Babies born with AIDS

13.7 million Africans have died of AIDS. Many of the victims are children.

Children like 7 year-old Mazibuko at the Cotlands sanctuary in Johannesburg, South Africa. It is a home for destitute children who have AIDS. Mazibuko lived much longer than most babies born with AIDS.

"He was everybody's special child," said Jackie Schoeman, the director of Cotlands.
"He fought death."

But Mazibuko's face, with its big sunny smile, now looks at people from a picture in the entrance hall at Cotlands; it is one of a long line of pictures of the children who have died of AIDS there.

Soon another child will join them. A tiny baby lies dying in the winter sunshine. The West has drugs that can prevent HIV being passed on to babies from their pregnant mothers in at least 50% of cases; however, Cotlands cannot afford them. The only thing they can do for this baby is to give him medicine that will makes his death less painful.

There are 18 beds at Cotlands.

"We average one death a week," said Jackie Schoeman,
"but last week we had three: one on Friday, one on Saturday and one on Sunday."

It is a similar story all over Africa.

SANCTUARY: a place where people are protected

DESTITUTE: very poor, without food, clothing or a place to live

A HOME FOR ... : a special place where people are cared for

PASSED ON TO: to give an illness to your children
DRUGS THAT PREVENT HIV BEING PASSED ON TO BABIES are drugs that stop babies getting HIV while in their mother's womb.

A woman who is PREGNANT has a baby developing inside her womb.

CANNOT AFFORD: does not have enough money to buy

AIDS orphans

But the children who die from AIDS are not the only child victims. An ever-growing number of children are becoming AIDS orphans, children whose parents have died of AIDS and who now have no-one to care for them. Many of them have no homes or families, and little chance of education. They are left to roam the streets.

The social cost of AIDS

The cost of AIDS in Africa is terrible. The death toll from AIDS is causing serious social problems.

"By overwhelming the continent's health and social services, by creating millions of orphans, and by decimating health workers and teachers, AIDS is causing social and economic crises which, in turn, threaten political stability."
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan

ORPHAN: a child whose parents have both died

EVER-GROWING: always growing

ROAM: to walk around without a purpose

DEATH TOLL: the number of people who have been killed

OVERWHELMING: defeating by the very large number of cases

DECIMATING: killing a very large number of people

THREATEN: to make something that is very undesireable likely to occur

STABILITY: order, balance; the opposite of INSTABILITY - sudden change

What can be done about AIDS in Africa?

South African President Thabo Mbeki has created a storm among scientists and AIDS workers. Mbeki has been influenced by the opinions of an American scientist, Peter Duesberg, who believes that "African and American and European AIDS are totally different things". Duesberg said that, in Africa, the HIV virus is not responsible for the kind of sexually transmitted epidemic that has happened in the USA and Europe. He said that many of the diseases that are diagnosed as AIDS in Africa are diseases that have existed for a long time, and are caused by things like malnutrition, parasitic infection and poor sanitation.

Many scientists and AIDS workers believe that these views are wrong. They are deeply angry about Mbeki's public support of these views because they feel that he threatens the fight against AIDS in Africa. On the other hand, a successful approach to fighting AIDS in Africa will require solutions that are appropriate and effective for the African continent. So what can be done?

CREATE A STORM AMONG: start a very big controversy

MALNUTRITION: illness caused by not having enough food to eat

PARASITIC INFECTION: an infection caused by a parasite = an disease that parasites cause (a parasite is something that lives in someone and feeds off that person)

SANITATION: how human waste is disposed of
POOR SANITATION: when human waste is not properly disposed of

Affordable drugs

Africa cannot afford the drugs produced by transnational pharmaceutical companies. Finally, this year, the drug companies offered to cut the price of AIDS drugs for African governments by 75%. But no African country accepted the offer. Why not? Because the drugs are still much too expensive; even at the reduced price, African countries cannot afford to buy them.

Dr Abdul-Karim of the Medical Research Council in South Africa, believes that the answer is for the pharmaceutical companies to allow local African companies to make their drugs under license and charge prices that local countries can afford.

"I don't think we should be asking for money for drugs. What the pharmaceutical companies should be saying is 'We'll give you this drug on license'."

However, the transnational companies want to protect their patents and intellectual property rights concerning the manufacture of drugs, because this is a very profitable market. Negotiations on this matter have only just started and they are likely to be very slow - but Africa does not have time to wait.

AFFORDABLE: at a price that people can pay

PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES: companies that make and sell medical drugs

If you MAKE something UNDER LICENSE, you have bought the right to make something from the company that has a patent on making it.

A PATENT is an official right to make something that prevents other companies from copying what you have made.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS: the ownership of ideas, designs, books, software, movies etc.

Education and openness

Another approach to fighting AIDS is to try to stop it spreading, to stop more people from becoming infected with the HIV virus. However, two big problems in Africa are the stigma that the disease still carries, and the fact that many men dislike using condoms. Changing these attitudes is a very important step towards cutting back the spread of AIDS. It is necessary to educate people about AIDS, and to do this people must accept the reality of AIDS and talk about it openly. People cannot try to hide it, and pretend that AIDS does not exist.

Some countries, like Uganda, have started very effective programmes to deal with these problems. The Ugandan government has introduced a system of regular AIDS testing that is completely confidential. The government has also worked hard to bring the issues of AIDS and condoms out into the open - for example, there are huge advertisements in the streets which encourage people to use condoms whenever they have sex. UNAIDS reports that the programme has been successful. Before the programme, the levels of new infection had been increasing very fast: since the programme started, levels of new infection in Uganda have become stable and, in some cases, they have even decreased.

This is just one example of good, effective measures that can be found all over Africa. But what is really needed, is for Africans to work together and pool their skills, knowledge, and resources so that they can effectively fight AIDS throughout Africa.

CONDOMS are put over the penis during sex for birth control or for disease protection.

CONFIDENTIAL: private, not public