World Bank report emphasizes AIDS
prevention efforts
5.59 p.m. EDT (2259 GMT) November 3, 1997
By Harry Dunphy, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) - Government leaders in developing countries
must act to prevent AIDS epidemics even if that means promoting
such politically controversial programs as condom use and clean
needles for drug users, according to a World Bank report released
Monday.
The report recommended fast, intensive prevention efforts in
countries where AIDS is just starting to appear, especially among
people who have many sex partners or inject drugs, saying millions
of lives could be saved. Approximately 90 percent of all HIV
infections occur in developing countries.
Sub-Sahara Africa has the most people infected with AIDS - 14
million - but new evidence in the report suggests the virus may be
on the verge of exploding in parts of China, India, Eastern Europe
and the former Soviet Union.
The report does not cover the United States and other industrialized
nations.
In some countries life expectancy was 10 to 20 years shorter than it
would have been in the absence of the AIDS epidemic, said Joseph
Stiglitz, the bank's chief economist and a former adviser to
President Clinton.
The international lending agency is one of the largest sources of
money for AIDS prevention, having committed $632 million to 61
projects in 41 countries.
Stiglitz said the report differs from many other studies of AIDS by
focusing on how best to allocate scarce government resources and
international funding for cost-effective responses to the disease.
Martha Ainsworth, a co-author of the report, said countries that
believed AIDS would not become a problem are now experiencing
serious epidemics.
"By the time many AIDS cases are observed it is too late to avert a
serious epidemic,'' she said. "HIV will already have spread widely.''
Among those in the riskiest category are people who have
unprotected sex with many partners - truck drivers, migrant
workers, bar workers and the military, the report said.
The report said programs that make it easier for injecting drug users
to get sterile needles also have been highly effective in preventing
the spread of AIDS.
Asked if the bank advocated needle-exchange programs, Richard
Feachem, director of the bank's health department, said the bank's
role was to provide governments with information so they can
decide. He said the bank was prepared to pay for such programs if
asked by a government.
Ainsworth and Feachem both said treatment for AIDS patients
available in the West was too expensive for developing countries.
They said it was better for available funds to be spent on
prevention. |
