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Africa Policy E-Journal
Africa: HIV/AIDS Update +++++++++++++++++++++Document Profile+++++++++++++++++++++
Region: Continent-Wide The African Development Forum 2000, organized by the Economic Commission on Africa (ECA), will focus on "AIDS: the greatest leadership challenge," and will take place in Addis Ababa from 22- 26 October, 2000. The ECA has launched a pre-conference on-line discussion. To join, send a message to join-adf2000- l@lyris.bellanet.org For more information on ADF 2000, see the ECA web site (http://www.un.org/depts/eca/adf2000). In a related posting also sent out today, documents related to African demands for accessibility of drugs for HIV/AIDS and other diseases. +++++++++++++++++end profile++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ UNAIDS (http://www.unaids.org)
Press Release NEW UN REPORT ESTIMATES OVER ONE-THIRD OF TODAY'S 15-YEAR-OLDS WILL DIE OF AIDS IN WORST-AFFECTED COUNTRIES * HIV/AIDS is causing dramatic shifts in demographics, with long-ranging social consequences for hardest-hit nations * Massive increase in resources needed to reduce the epidemic's spread and impact The ongoing spread of HIV in the world's hardest-hit regions, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, is reversing years of declining death rates, causing drastic rises in mortality among young adults and dramatically altering population structures in the most affected regions. While the epidemic of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is stabilizing in many high-income countries, as well as in a handful of developing nations, HIV prevalence rates among 15-49-year-olds have now reached or exceeded 10% in 16 countries, all of them in sub-Saharan Africa. As high as these rates are, they greatly understate the demographic impact of AIDS. The probability of dying of AIDS is systematically higher than prevalence rates indicate. Conservative new analyses show that this is true even if countries manage to cut the risk of becoming HIV-infected in half over the next fifteen years. For example, where 15% of adults are currently infected, no fewer than a third of today's 15-year-olds will die of AIDS. In countries where adult prevalence rates exceed 15%, the lifetime risk of dying of AIDS is even greater, assuming again that successful prevention programmes manage to halve the HIV risk.
These findings are contained in a new United Nations report that shows that current trends in HIV infection will increasingly have an impact on rates of infant, child and adult mortality, life expectancy and economic growth in many countries. The latest Report on the global HIV/AIDS epidemic, which includes a country-by-country update on the global epidemic, was prepared by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), and released today in advance of the XIIIth International AIDS Conference being held in Durban, South Africa, from 9 to 14 July. Speaking at the release of the report in Geneva, Peter Piot, Executive Director of UNAIDS, warned: "The AIDS toll in hard-hit countries is altering the economic and social fabric of society. HIV will kill more than one-third of the young adults of countries where it has its firmest hold, yet the global response is still just a fraction of what it could be. We need to respond to this crisis on a massively different scale from what has been done so far." Long-term demographic impacts threaten social stability In developing countries, where HIV transmission occurs mainly through unsafe sex between men and women, the majority of infected people acquire HIV by the time they are in their 20s and 30s and, on average, succumb to AIDS around a decade later. The resulting decrease in the productive workforce and proportional increase in citizens in the oldest and youngest age groups -- those most likely to require aid from society -- is becoming a key contributor to social instability.
"Because of AIDS, poverty is getting worse just as the need for more resources to curb the spread of HIV and alleviate the epidemic's impact on development is growing. It's time to make the connection between debt relief and epidemic relief", said Dr Piot. "Developing countries, who carry 95% of the HIVAIDS burden, owe in total around US$2 trillion. But Africa is the priority because this is the region with the most HIV infections, the most AIDS deaths, and the vast majority of the world's heavily indebted poor countries." "African governments are paying out four times more in debt service than they now spend on health and education. If the international community relieves some of their external debt, these countries can reinvest the savings in poverty alleviation and AIDS prevention and care. If not, poverty will just continue to fan the flames of the epidemic." HIV infection rates continue to increase in many countries In sub-Saharan Africa, where the most severe epidemics are to be found, UNAIDS and the World Health Organization (WHO) estimate that some 24.5 million adults and children are now living with HIV, and that the proportion of 15-49-year-olds infected with the virus is still increasing in most countries. In countries such as Cameroon, Ghana and South Africa - which now has 4.2 million people living with HIV/AIDS, the highest number in the world - the adult prevalence rate has shot up by more than half in the past two years. In all countries of the region, HIV prevalence rates in young women aged 15-24 are higher -- typically two or three times higher -- than those for young men the same age. In the 15-19 age bracket, the sex differential is even wider. Girls who consent or are coerced into early intercourse are especially vulnerable to infection, not only because of their immature genital tract but because they often have older partners, who are more likely to be infected. On other continents, too, the epidemic has not lost its momentum.
Signs of hope, but response needs urgent and massive expansion While the overall picture is a sobering one, the UNAIDS report presents new information showing once again that the world is not helpless against the epidemic. Countries that tackled the epidemic with sound approaches years ago are already reaping the rewards in the form of falling or low and stable HIV rates, greater inclusiveness of people already affected by HIV or AIDS, and diminished suffering. Countries that began to apply those approaches more recently can look forward to similar gains.
"Achievements like these keep hope alive by proving that the world is not powerless against the epidemic", said Dr Piot. "But up to now the gains have been scattered, not systematic. We need an all-out effort to turn the tide of the epidemic everywhere, with a massive increase in resources from domestic budgets and international development assistance."
Fact Sheet: HIV/AIDS IN AFRICA While some gains were made in prevention and care in a number of countries, there were 4 million new HIV infections in sub-Saharan Africa during 1999. In Africa, AIDS now kills ten times more people a year than war. There are now 16 countries in Africa in which more than one-tenth of the adult population (aged 15-49) is infected with HIV. In the six countries of southern Africa, AIDS is expected to claim the lives of between 8% and 25% of today' practising doctors by the year 2005. In seven countries, all in the southern cone of the continent, at least one adult in five is living with HIV. In countries where 10% of the adult population has HIV infection, almost 80% of all deaths in young adults aged 25-45 will be associated with HIV. Infection rates in young African women are far higher than in young men. According to studies presented in the report, the average rates in teenage girls were over five times higher than in teenage boys. Among young people in their early 20s, the rates were three times higher in women. In Africa, women’s peak infection rates occur at earlier ages than men’s. This helps explain why there are an estimated 12 women living with HIV for every 10 men in this region. A recent study estimates that in 1997, public health spending for AIDS alone already exceeded 2% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 7 of 16 African countries sampled – a staggering figure in nations where total health spending accounts for 3–5% of GDP. In Zimbabwe, by 1997 the likelihood of a 15-year-old woman dying before the end of her reproductive years quadrupled from around 11% in the early 1980s to over 40% by 1997. More than 2000 Zimbabweans die of AIDS each week. In Botswana, a shocking 35.8% of adults are now infected with HIV, while in South Africa, 19.9% are infected, up from 12.9% just two years ago. The adult HIV prevalence rate in Botswana has more than tripled since 1992, when it was an estimated 10%. With a total of 4.2 million infected people, South Africa has the largest number of people living with HIV/AIDS in the world, as well as one of the world's fastest-growing epidemics. Already, 1 in 4 South African women between ages 20 and 29 are infected with the virus. More than 1 in 4 adults living in Zambian cities are HIV-positive, and more than 1 in 7 Zambian adults are infected in the country's rural areas. On the other hand, the percentage of pregnant girls aged 15-19 infected with HIV in the capital, Lusaka, has on average dropped by almost half in the last six years. The percentage of unmarried women who were sexually active fell from 52% to 35% between 1990 and 1996. A study in Zambia showed that in one hospital, deaths among health care workers increased 13-fold over the 10-year period from 1980 to 1990, largely because of HIV. In West Africa, relatively less affected, prevalence rates in some countries are creeping up. Côte d’Ivoire is already among the 15 worst-affected countries in the world. In Nigeria, by far the most populous country in sub-Saharan Africa, over 2.7 million people are infected with HIV. By the year 2010, crude death rates in Cameroon will have more than doubled as a result of HIV/AIDS. An estimated 340,000 people in Ghana are currently living with HIV. Infection rates in East Africa, once the highest on the continent, hover above those in West Africa but have been exceeded by the rates now being seen in the southern cone. The prevalence rate among adults in Ethiopia and Kenya has reached double-digit figures and continues to rise. Since the epidemic began, AIDS has created some 12.1 million orphans in Africa, out of a global total of 13.2 million AIDS orphans. Before AIDS, about 2% of all children in developing countries were orphans. By 1997, the proportion of children with one or both parents dead had skyrocketed to 7% in many African countries. HIV-positive patients have occupied 39% of the beds in Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya, and 70% of the beds in the Prince Regent Hospital in Bujumbura, Burundi. Through strong prevention programmes, Uganda has brought its estimated prevalence rate down to around 8% from a peak of close to 14% in the early 1990s. HIV prevalence among 13-19-year-old girls has fallen significantly over an eight-year period, while the rate in teenage boys -- always much lower because boys are less likely than girls to have partners in the older, more heavily infected age groups -- has remained roughly stable. The percentage of teenage girls who had ever used a condom tripled between 1994 and 1997.
Documents previously distributed in the e-journal are
available on the Africa Action website: To be added to or dropped from the e-journal subscription list, write to e-journal@africaaction.org. For more information about reposted material, please contact directly the source mentioned in the posting.
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Africa Policy E-Journal
