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Change Your Life! |
Isn't the situation hopeless? |
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July 13, 2000
DURBAN, South Africa (AP) - Scattered successes around the world show that government prevention programs can slow and reverse the AIDS epidemic, even in the poorest areas, researchers said Wednesday. The explosive spread of AIDS, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, has surprised even those who warned several years ago about the continent's vulnerability to HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. However, Peter R. Lamptey of Ghana, an official of Family Health International in Washington, said examples of declining AIDS incidence in several countries in Africa and Asia show the situation is not hopeless. He spoke Wednesday at the 13th International AIDS Conference. Many of these prevention programs are under funded and small, and there is no way to accurately monitor their impact. Still, he said, "I have no doubt that many of them are saving lives and that the epidemic would have been far worse without them." He noted that Thailand and Uganda have already reversed broad epidemics, and Senegal is the only sub-Saharan African country to prevent one from occurring. He said there are encouraging signs that the epidemic may be stabilizing in Cambodia, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Lamptey said money spent on these programs is still relatively small. In 1990, developing countries spent about dlrs 600 million on both AIDS prevention and care. By comparison, the United States spent dlrs 800 million on domestic HIV prevention and dlrs 7 billion on AIDS care and assistance programs. Key ways of preventing the spread of AIDS are education programs that promote condom use, treatment of other sexually transmitted diseases, and treatment to prevent mother-to-child transmission. "We know that HIV prevention can work," Lamptey said. "How many more people must die before we find the will and the resources needed to make prevention and care work for everyone?"
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