AIDS epidemic continues to devastate Africa, weakened by debt crisis

 

A report produced by the United Nations AIDS programme in Geneva and released for World AIDS Day on December 1^st shows that the spread of AIDS, now the worst infectious disease in modern times, is showing no signs of slowing. The world-wide total of people infected with HIV is 33.4 million, up from 27.6 million last year. 95 per cent of the infections have occurred in regions with the highest debt burdens in particular Africa, but also Asia and Eastern Europe.

The worst hit region is sub-Saharan Africa, where 70 per cent of all new infections and 80 per cent of deaths occur. The UNAIDS report estimates that there are 22.5 million people with HIV/AIDS in the region. Since the first AIDS deaths were recorded in the 1980s, 83 per cent of the world's AIDS deaths have been in sub-Saharan Africa, and 95 per cent of the world's AIDS orphans are African.

Clare Short, the British International Development Secretary, said that the figures are “truly terrible. "They are wiping out some of the development gains for which we have worked so hard. "

Carol Bellamy, executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund said that “the virus is already wiping out almost at a stroke, the substantial reductions in child mortality that were achieved in the 1980s and the first part of this decade. AIDS is well on its way to producing tens of millions of orphans.”

In four countries – Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia and Swaziland - more than one in five adults are now infected with HIV. In Zimbabwe it is 26 per cent, in Botswana 25 per cent and in Namibia, Swaziland and Zambia 18 to 20 per cent. In South Africa, according to government statistics, about 14 per cent of the 32 million population are infected, and 1500 more are diagnosed each day.

The link with debt

Peter Piot, executive director of UN AIDS, the UN Programme for tackling AIDS, said: “If we do not invest in HIV prevention today we will have to invest in food aid tomorrow.” He made only a neutral comment when pressed by reporters about the need for debt cancellation in the context of tackling AIDS in Southern Africa, but the connection was not lost on elements of the USA press. The San Francisco Chronicle and the Boston Globe both argued that foreign debt repayments should be steered to prevention if the poorest countries are to safeguard their populations.

Many of the worst affected countries carry unsustainable debt burdens and their health sectors are desperately short of the investment necessary to deal with infected people and take steps towards prevention. According to the latest figures available from the United Nations Human Development Report and World Bank data:

• Uganda spends 1.6 per cent of GDP on health and 2.4 per cent on foreign debt service
• Zimbabwe spends 3.2 per cent of GDP on health and 10.3 per cent on foreign debt service
• Zambia spends 3.2 per cent of GDP on health and 9.8 per cent on foreign debt service

The International Herald Tribune, on August 7 reported that Zimbabwe “once had a health system that was the envy of Southern Africa.” Yet undermined by debt and poverty, wholly preventable diseases have been surging throughout the country. With AIDS has come the return of diseases such as tuberculosis, hepatitis, malaria, measles and cholera. It is predicted that life expectancy in Zimbabwe will fall from 61 in 1993 to 49 by the end of the century.

Ann Pettifor, Director of Jubilee 2000 Coalition, said, “Creditors in the west must recognise that every dollar they take in debt service is another dollar that could be spent dealing with this appalling epidemic. While rich countries are beginning to cope with the AIDS crisis, the poorest countries are unable to afford simple measures that would limit the spread of the disease and care for those who are suffering.”