Reviewing Impacts of HIV/AIDS in Africa. 8/12/10

In Africa in general and Nigeria in particular, hundreds of thousands of people have lost their lives as a result of the disease

AllAfrica

Lagos — On December 1, 2010, the world marked the World AIDS Day with the theme; "Universal Access and Human Right" as directed by the United Nations. There were walks and seminars in parts of the world in commemoration of the day.

As handlers of young people, the Skyflers International Schools, Ibafo, Oguns State celebrated the day with various activities such as health seminar, drama, talk show and quiz competition. Director of the school, Asuoha Chijoke said; "we believe that when the young ones are provided with broad information about HIV/AIDS' causes, transmission, prevention and management, much would have been done to save these our future gems from the dreaded scourge."

In deed, the deadly scourge has defied cure and has been causing the world a lot of pains. In Africa in general and Nigeria in particular, hundreds of thousands of people have lost their lives as a result of the disease, leaving behind hundreds of thousands orphans. Though awareness campaign against the disease seems to be high, yet many Africans cannot access antiretroviral drugs leading to their pre-mature deaths. Medical practitioners maintained that Africans are yet to harness the mechanics -- of PMTCT, preventing mother to child transmission of HIV.

According to Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town and Honorary Chairman of the Global AIDS Alliance, Desmond Tutu and, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Executive Director, Anthony Lake; "a generation born free of HIV and AIDS is within the world's reach - and Africa is at a tipping point."

They lamented that today, pediatric HIV and AIDS is virtually a thing of the past almost everywhere in the world except Africa -- and few other places left behind during a decade of progress in using antiretroviral medication to prevent maternal to child transmission of HIV.

"In fact, nine out of 10 pregnant women with HIV today live in Africa; so do nine out of 10 children living with HIV. Every day, 1,000 African babies are born with HIV. The majority will not receive treatment. Without it, half will die before reaching their second birthdays. We should all be outraged by this tragic loss of young life - all the more tragic because it is needless. We have the power to prevent mother to child transmission of HIV everywhere, and it is time we used that power to save hundreds of thousands of lives in Africa. The time has come to recognise that because we can virtually eliminate pediatric HIV and AIDS, we must," they noted.

To them, it is not a question of knowledge because in the last 10 years, Africans have learned a great deal about the miracle of the mechanics -- of PMTCT. "It is a question of priorities and political will. First and foremost, this means a sustained commitment by African governments to include dedicated funding for PMTCT in their national health budgets. Only five out of 53 African countries have met their commitment to the Abuja Declaration to allocate at least 15 per cent of their annual budgets to health care of all types - and very few have dedicated funding to pediatric HIV and AIDS."

For instance they cited example of some countries that are taking action like Kenya that has set an ambitious goal of decreasing pediatric HIV infections from 27 per cent to 8 per cent by 2013.

It was gathered that last year, the Kenyan government set aside $11.25 million to purchase anti-retroviral medication for pregnant women and that the country has also been working to bridge critical gaps in its PMTCT programme - including new efforts designed to reach the hardest hit and often hardest to reach communities.

Also, last month Kenya became the first country to begin distributing the Mother Baby Pack, "take-home boxes" that contain all the drugs needed to protect the health of one mother and her infant - even mothers who live in remote locations far from clinics. Both Tutu and Lake described the initiative developed by UNICEF, World Health Organisation (WHO), UNITAID and other partners as promising, saying that soon, Cameroon, Lesotho and Zambia would also begin distribution of the packs to accelerate their own PMTCT efforts.

"We are inspired by such transformational leadership in Kenya and in other countries, like South Africa and Nigeria that are making historic changes in their own HIV/AIDS policies. We hope other African governments soon follow suit."

They also reiterated that achieving a generation free of HIV and AIDS is also a global imperative, requiring renewed commitment by donor nations, international agencies, civil society and the private sector.

"We must all focus greater attention on -- and increase investment in scaling up cost-effective initiatives to ensure that clinics are properly staffed and supplied, so that more women and newborns are tested early and receive ARV treatment in time to prevent transmission of HIV. Further funding is also needed to expand access to quality care, treatment and support for women and children living with HIV. And, without question, we must invest in innovative ways of reaching the poorest and most vulnerable women and families," they noted.

They added that clearly, the key to success was partnership at every level.

The Campaign to End Pediatric HIV/AIDS (CEPA), an African civil society partnership, is galvanizing action to end pediatric HIV/AIDS, starting in six African nations.

The Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, a global public/private partnership, has been providing significant funding to expand HIV prevention and treatment efforts in Africa. Last month, pledges to the Global Fund hit $11.7 billion. The U.S. generously increased its pledge to the Fund by 38 per cent, and several G20 nations still have time to pledge. However, they noted that the current funding levels were only enough to sustain existing outreach efforts - and that Africa cannot afford to wait. "With inadequate dedicated funding, fewer than half of the HIV-positive pregnant women in Sub-Saharan Africa will receive life-prolonging anti-retroviral medication. Without these medicines, up to 40 percent of the infants born to these mothers will develop HIV; with them, that rate plummets to 5 per cent. These numbers speak for themselves - and the choice is ours to make, it is a matter of priorities, life and death. This World AIDS Day, we must all recommit ourselves to saving lives - by taking bold action today to secure an AIDS-free tomorrow, in Africa and everywhere."