New hope in battling AIDS in Africa
By Beth R. Alexander
United Press International
Washington, DC, Aug. 11 (UPI) -- A cheap and effective preventative measure against HIV/AIDS in the form of blood-transfusion test kits has become a valuable remedy in sub-Saharan Africa, a region ravaged for decades by the deadly epidemic, and could prove useful for the rest of the developing world.
Last month the Washington-based Safe Blood for Africa Foundation launched its new initiative in the Nigerian state Akwa Ibom. Those involved have been distributing millions of "rapid" low-cost, blood-transfusion test kits to African hospitals and are currently training hospital workers in using the kits to detect HIV/AIDS-infected donated blood. This development marks a major breakthrough in areas ill-equipped to deal with escalating HIV cases where infected blood accounts for 10 percent to 15 percent of AIDS cases throughout Africa. Most of the blood goes to children suffering from anemia and malaria.
"Almost 2 million transfusions occur to children and of those 2 million transfusions, at least 200,000 children are getting HIV through the blood supply," project chairman, Jeff Busch, told United Press International.
"If we could secure the blood supply now, wherever AIDS would go in Africa, China, India, it would be substantially less if we had the blood supply secure," Busch said.
The problem results from medical ignorance and a shortage of trained nurses. Allured by lucrative contracts in other countries where nurses are paid 5 to 10 times the salaries of African countries, those with the skills are moving out, leaving behind practitioners with no medical background.
The foundation discovered that of the estimated 6 million blood transfusions performed each year in sub-Saharan Africa, as many as half of them are not tested for infectious diseases -- including AIDS and Hepatitis B -- and another 1.5 million may be improperly performed.
A major achievement of these globally produced test kits is that they do not require refrigeration. Many test kits have been ineffective because African hospitals do not have the electricity to maintain the cool temperatures that accuracy required. Furthermore, at $10 per person, the kit is a relatively inexpensive method to prevent the spread of AIDS.
The foundation initially attempted more sophisticated automated control operations but realized early on, given the primitive conditions in the areas in which they were working, that this was not feasible and they had to resort to a very basic level.
"The hospitals are in a terrible situation. They are extremely under-funded, they're just trying to survive," Busch told UPI. Even when technicians do have the training, many do not have the supplies they need.
The goal of Safe Blood for Africa is to follow a "multi-pronged program" in cooperation with the Nigerian government which will follow-up and monitor activities at the participating institutions. The project aims to help create a national blood service and is set to open up its headquarters Abuja, the Nigerian capital.
ExxonMobil together with the U.S. Agency for International Development and other American investors are funding a training program that has already taught over 100 people the necessary blood technology to work in hospitals and laboratories in the region.
The project, now expanded to include Nigeria, spans 18 African countries and with 34 more target countries to be included. The project initiators say this is a tremendous success.
"So far, our operations have saved hundreds of thousands of people from getting HIV," Busch said.
"When we fully implement our program in all our target countries, we could be saving millions of people," he added.
Yet complacency is certainly not an option since AIDS is a problem that will not readily go away. According to U.N. estimates, 25 million of the 38 million infected with HIV worldwide live in Southern Africa, while 7.6 million people living in Asia are infected.
In his January 2003 State of the union address, President Bush pledged to spend $15 million over the next five years to fight AIDS. However, U.N. Secretary-General, Kofi Anan sent a critical message to world leaders at the International AIDS Summit in Bangkok last month.
"We are not doing nearly well enough," he told an audience of more than 17,000 scientists, policymakers, aid workers and AIDS activists.
"We need leaders everywhere to demonstrate that speaking up about AIDS is a point of pride, not a source of shame. There must be no more sticking heads in the sand, ... no more hiding behind a veil of apathy."
Nigerian-born project coordinator, Al Ayida, said that his government had appealed to the international community for help in the past in combating the disease but had been "unable to attract the necessary level of assistance."
"International efforts could have been better coordinated," he told UPI in a phone interview from London.
However, he also mentioned political change in Nigeria as a significant factor in aggravating the humanitarian crisis. With an estimated population size of 103 million speaking 135 different dialects, Nigeria is among sub-Saharan Africa's most populous and diverse societies.
Since gaining independence from Britain in 1960, Nigeria has faced constant political and economic instability. In 1966, after a violent coup, the military established a dictatorship and continued to reign over the country for over 30 years. Under a repressive regime, humanitarian aid was not given priority.
"I don't think the military had enough recognition of HIV being a crisis," Ayida said. The new government, now led by President Olusegun Obasanjo, has been more responsive to the problem and has set up an agency to coordinate AIDS-combatant efforts.
Although AIDS is traditionally perceived as an African problem, parts of Asia are becoming cause for major concern. Russia, India, China and Vietnam could become the next targets for HIV if preventive action is not taken, AIDS experts have warned.
The chair of the Safe Blood for Africa Foundation hopes that further measures will be taken in the global fight against AIDS. The blood test kits in sub-Saharan Africa provide just one solution to a problem that is "escalating out of control," Ayida told UPI.
"There's a lot that needs to be done. ... We are just a piece of the problem but we think we can solve our piece."
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