Without beating AIDS challenge, Africa cannot reach development goals – Annan
Despite an improved commitment in African countries to fighting AIDS, the disease remains the continent’s greatest
development challenge, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today told an African Union (AU) summit convened to
boost the fight against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria.
“Without defeating it, we cannot reach the Millennium Development Goals,” he said in a message delivered by Dr. Peter
Piot, Executive Director of the UNAIDS programme to the heads of State and government gathered in Abuja, Nigeria.
“That means we must guard against the danger of reducing, even by one iota, the priority we place on fighting AIDS, in
Africa and worldwide,” he added. The MDGs, adopted at the UN Millennium Summit of 2000, seek to slash a host of
socio-economic ills, such as extreme hunger and poverty, high infant and maternal mortality and lack of access to
education and health care, all by 2015.
“Let me emphasize one overarching priority: if we are to win this war, our efforts will have to be guided by the need to
promote gender equality and all human rights for all - even those whose orientation, behaviour or life choices we may
personally not agree with,” Mr. Annan said.
He also stressed the need to do more in the fight against tuberculosis, which is the leading cause of death among people
infected with HIV, and called on Africa’s leaders to commit to full implementation of the Stop TB Partnership's Global
Plan’s roadmap for reversing the disease and driving down mortality through the expansion of treatment and prevention
programmes.
On malaria, despite a significant increase in international funding for Africa and considerable progress by some
countries, the disease continues to kill more than 1 million Africans every year, and puts real constraints on economic
growth, he noted.
“To reach our common goal of halving malaria mortality by 2010, we need to do more to strengthen health systems, expand
access to therapies and broaden the use of insecticide-treated nets, especially for pregnant women and children under
five,” he said.
UN World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Africa Luis Sambo told African health ministers in Abuja
yesterday that the burden of the three killer diseases remains “unacceptably high” and he called on health officials to
focus on addressing the specific needs and challenges of children affected by them.
“Reducing child morbidity and mortality remains one of the main challenges due to the high burden of the diseases… and
this situation is aggravated by poverty, natural and man-made disasters, and weak health systems,” he said.
Despite the challenges some progress had been recorded, including an increase in access by AIDS patients to
antiretroviral therapy from 1 per cent in 2003 to 17 per cent in 2005, and the decline in some countries of the rate of
new HIV infections, he added.
He also noted progress in the availability of the WHO-recommended Directly Observed Treatment Short Course (DOTS) for TB
treatment in most countries in the region, and the adoption by 36 countries of policies on the use of the more
efficacious Artemisinin based Combination Therapy (ACTs) for treating malaria.