New York (dpa) - The AIDS epidemic has eroded African societies in
multiple ways, from threatening government institutions to decreasing
agricultural production, a report said Monday, adding that more
challenges were expected in coming years.
The report by the African Development Forum presented at a
conference on HIV/AIDS at the United Nations headquarters in New York
provided a gloomy analysis of the situation in sub-Saharan Africa,
which has been hardest hit by AIDS in the world.
"Our overall conclusion is that the epidemic poses a great threat
to governance in Africa," the forum said. "In many parts of the
continent the impact of AIDS already has significant consequences for
all forms of social, economic and political activity and thus for
governance in the years to come."
The disease has killed more than 14 million Africans since 2000
when the continent established the African Development Forum to raise
awareness of the impacts of HIV/AIDS. Millions had died before that
year, but the forum was considered a watershed in the fight against
the epidemic.
An estimated 17 million Africans have been infected with the AIDS
virus since 2000 and the number of AIDS-related orphans increased
from 8.5 million in 2000 to 14 million in 2006. The UN estimated a
total of 32.2 million people living with HIV around the world in
2007.
The forum said AIDS deaths in Africa have created a brain drain,
reducing the ranks of educated and professional people, and
preventing the education of younger cadres.
The most severely hit African countries included Botswana,
Zimbabwe, South Africa, Zambia, Lesotho, Tanzania, Central African
Republic, Malawi, Kenya and Uganda.
Shortened life expectancies due to AIDS, as low as less than 40
years, have been documented in Botswana, the Central African
Republic, Lesotho, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The gross national product in worst AIDS-hit African nations could
contract by 18 per cent by 2020, and the disease could kill 13 to 26
per cent of the agricultural labour force in those countries by that
year.
The UN said its efforts to provide anti-HIV/AIDS anti-retroviral
treatments, which reached 1 million infected people in 2007, was
outpaced by the number of infections - 2.5 million in the same year.
"Strong, sustained political commitment and leadership" was needed
to fight the epidemic, which has killed more than 25 million people
since AIDS was first isolated in the mid-1980s, the report said.
"True leadership is reflected in action, not words."
The HIV/AIDS conference was aimed at a progress review in order to
provide new impetus and activities so the spread of the epidemic
could be halted by 2015. The drive is part of the so-called
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted by the UN General
Assembly in 2000.
Other MDGs are eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, the
achievement of universal primary education, reduction of child
mortality rates and improvement in maternal health care by 2015.
Copyright 2008 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH