UN to step up AIDS fight in Africa
BRUSSELS, Mar 17 (Reuters) -- A vaccine against HIV will not be available for at least another decade, the head of the United Nations agency responsible for combating AIDS said on Wednesday.
"If we are realistic, we will not have a vaccine for at least 10 more years," said Peter Piot, Belgian executive director of UNAIDS and assistant UN Secretary General.
"So prevention remains the only option," he told the Belgian parliamentary committee for foreign affairs.
UNAIDS is stepping up the fight against AIDS in Africa this year and is negotiating with governments, donors and non-governmental organisations, he said. He declined to give details but noted the political will existed to make a special effort.
"It's very clear that if we carry on with business as usual, an even bigger catastrophe is waiting to happen in Africa," Piot told Reuters after the meeting, which preceded the signature of a long-term cooperation agreement between Belgium and UNAIDS.
Piot said 35 million people are infected with HIV and there are 16,000 new cases every day, mostly among young people.
"Every minute, five youngsters between 15 and 24 are infected with HIV," said Piot, adding that AIDS caused 2.5 million deaths in 1998.
"There's still far too little attention given to AIDS," Piot said.
Piot said between a quarter and a third of the adult population in countries such as Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Botswana, Namibia and South Africa are infected with HIV.
"In Africa alone there are about 9 million orphans whose parents have died of AIDS," he said.
In the hardest hit African states, AIDS has reversed gains in life expectancy, causing it to fall back to levels last seen in the 1960s.
And the disease is devastating the economies of these countries by decimating the working population, he said, adding that gross domestic product was declining in several African states.
"It is causing real devastation among the middle class," said Piot. In addition, armies in many African nations have an infection rate of between 50% and 70%.
"(AIDS) and war are Africa's biggest catastrophes. AIDS is much bigger than any other health problem or natural disaster including drought," he said.
Piot said a major problem was that many political leaders failed to admit there was an AIDS problem.
But Piot said he refused to be pessimistic about the fight against AIDS. "There are countries like Uganda and Senegal which have succeeded in sharply reducing the number of new infections with limited means," he said.
UNAIDS had managed to get the disease on some political agendas and was making progress in raising awareness about AIDS among political leaders like South Africa's Nelson Mandela and Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.
Success also depended on changing attitudes among the general population, as was happening in Thailand and Brazil.
"It is possible to fight AIDS," Piot said.
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