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Taking Aids fight to higher levels
By
Raphael Mweninguwe - 14-08-2002 |
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Aids has no cure at present, say health experts.
But herbalists disagree. They claim they can cure it. Considering the number of Aids cases in the country and their resulting deaths, the scientific view has more popular support than the latter.
Common method being advocated to control the spread of HIV, the virus that causes Aids, is prevention through safe sex or abstinence. But this is easier said than done by the majority of the population.
An Aids vaccine is far from being a reality. Only indications are there that the vaccine may be ready in four years time from now. At least this is the message that health experts delivered to participants at a health conference in Barcelona, Spain last month.
The battle against Aids and other diseases needs a lot of financial resources. The most affected by the diseases are the poor, many of whom are in Africa, South America and Asia.
It is against this backdrop that the international community came up with a financial mechanism aimed at dealing with not only Aids, but also malaria and tuberculosis (TB).
At the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) extraordinary summit held in Blantyre in January, 2002, a report, titled Macroeconomics and Health: Investing in Health for Economic Development, was presented by the then US Harvard University Professor Jeffrey Sachs.
Sachs, one of the world’s leading economists, chaired the World Health Organisation (WHO) Commission that compiled the report.
He is now director of Columbia University Earth Institute, a leader in earth systems teaching and research, a federation of eight research and teaching centres.
Making the presentation, Sachs urged Sadc leaders to commit themselves to the fight against diseases which, he said, have a negative impact on the development of the region.
“The burden of disease in some low-income regions, especially sub-Saharan Africa, stands as absolute barrier to economic growth and must be addressed comprehensively,” he said.
The Sadc region has a population of 195 million people, a majority of whom live below the poverty line of less than US$1 a day. The region also faces a widening gap between the rich and the poor. And worst of all, it is hit hard by Aids apart from civil conflicts.
Sachs announced the setting up of a Global Fund at the summit, saying it would help countries to fight Aids, malaria and TB.
Malawi, according to the professor, was one of the first countries to benefit from the fund apart from South Africa and Rwanda.
Rwanda is reported to have received a US$14 million grant to fight HIV/Aids, TB and Malaria, according to Health Minister Ezechias Rwabu-hihi.
Rwanda Radio reported last month that the government would use the money to expand health services which include treatment of selected opportunistic infections associated with HIV/Aids and programmes aimed at preventing mother-to-child transmission.
In its findings the report says poor countries can increase the domestic resources that they mobilise for health sector and use those resources efficiently.
“The HIV/Aids pandemic is a distinct and unparalleled catastrophe in its human dimension and its implications for economic development. It, therefore, requires special consideration,” said Sachs.
The report recommended the establishment of two new funding mechanisms by 2007: The Global Fund of US$8 billion to fight Aids, TB, and malaria and the Global Health Research Fund of US$1.5 billion.
Acting director of programmes at the National Aids Commission Roy Hauya said Malawi would receive about US$196 million within a five-year period which he said was the highest.
“Our proposal asked for about US$284 million, but this was scaled down to US$196,” he said, adding Malawi is expected to receive about US$12 million from the Fund this first year.
Hauya, however, indicated that despite the promise being made early this year, Malawi has not yet received the money.
He, however, said he was optimistic that the money would be in anytime.
The country will use community-based activities in the fight against Aids, malaria and TB if it gets the money from the Global Fund.
The fund was welcomed by both President Bakili Muluzi and Health and Population Minister Yusuf Mwawa.
It is estimated that about a million people out of 11 million in the country are living with HIV/Aids and many are already dead.
Globally the number of people living with HIV/Aids by the end of 1999 was at 34.3 million with 2.8 million deaths. The sub-Saharan Africa had 24.5 million with 2.2 million deaths.
It is because of these alarming statistics that the report recommends that the rich countries should increase financial assistance to the developing nations badly hit by the epidemic.
“They [rich countries] would resolve that lack of donor funds should not be the factor that limits the capacity to provide health services to the world’s poorest peoples,” says the report.
This Global Fund should, therefore, be good news, not only to the government but to every other individual person especially those affected by these diseases.
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