WORLD
CAPITALS, November 30 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The
world marks AIDS Day Monday, December 1, with three million expected
to fall die of the disease this year, 40 million infected with HIV
need help, and a growing army of AIDS orphans.
But
behind the grim ceremonies, some experts sense that 2003 may prove to
be the year of change in the long, defeat-strewn war against the
greatest health peril of our time, according to Agence France-Presse
(AFP) Sunday, November 30.
Peter
Piot, executive director of UNAIDS, told AFP that the AIDS pandemic is
still spreading ruthlessly, reaching its tentacles into eastern Europe
and parts of Asia after ravaging Africa - but even so, 2003, in his
words, is "a swing year," arguably the most optimistic in
the 22-year history of AIDS.
"Amidst
the unfolding tragedy of the epidemic, the global response to AIDS is
entering an extraordinary and historic new phase of opportunity,"
says Piot.
"This
is being driven by political will, evidence of what works and
increased donor and national resources."
The
expert ticks off a list of encouraging things that have happened this
year: a flowering of political will to roll back the disease; a
dramatic cut in the price of life-prolonging anti-retroviral drugs to
as little as 50 cents per person per day; and South Africa's belated
launch of a nationwide treatment program.
Best
of all was the arrival of big bucks. Spending on AIDS rose 50 percent
this year, from 3.1 billion to 4.7 billion dollars, although it is
still only half of what is needed, Piot told AFP.
India
Marks AIDS Day
India,
which has more people with HIV than any country except South Africa,
said Sunday it planned to provide its AIDS patients the cheapest drugs
in the world through a deal with its pharmaceutical firms.
The
Indian government will also launch a two billion-rupee (43.6
million-dollar) program to provide free medication to HIV-positive
parents, children up to age 15 and poor patients using government
hospitals, Health Minister Sushma Swaraj said, according to AFP.
She
told a press conference that the government was in negotiations with
Indian drug companies to get "rock-bottom drug prices" for
Indian AIDS patients.
Three
Indian pharmaceutical companies are taking part in former U.S.
President Bill Clinton's project to slash AIDS drugs to 38 cents a day
for developing countries.
"I
asked the Indian pharmaceutical companies why they couldn't bring down
their prices for their own people when they were offering such a good
deal to the Clinton AIDS foundation," Swaraj said.
"I
am delighted to announce that after a very fruitful meeting they
promised to slash the prices to less than 38 cents for India if the
government gave them certain export benefits. I will ask our Finance
Minister to help, I am sure the deal will go through."
According
to an industry source who did not want to be identified by AFP, the
deal could ensure each Indian patient received a commonly used
triple-drug regimen for less than 20 cents a day.
Muslim
Countries Struck With AIDS
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Female
Nepalese HIV sufferers during a candle-light vigil in Kathmandu
(AFP)
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However,
bad news marked this year’s AIDS Day for some Muslim countries which
were not among countries that were reported to bear the brunt of the
killer disease so far.
The
U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) warned Sunday that increasing
intravenous drug use could see war-ravaged Afghanistan risking an AIDS
epidemic.
"Increasing
drug use is a serious factor that could push Afghanistan towards the
risk of an HIV/AIDS epidemic if we don't start raising public
awareness of the issue, and focus on prevention," UNICEF's
Afghanistan head of health Peter Salama said in a statement ahead of
World AIDS day, carried by AFP.
"One
of the major difficulties in Afghanistan is that there is no
functional surveillance and data gathering system on HIV/AIDS,"
the doctor said.
"The
reported number of cases is low, but that probably does not paint the
full picture."
UNICEF
spokesman Edward Carwardine said the Central Asian country had so far
escaped relatively unscathed with fewer than 20 reported cases of the
disease.
"Less
than 20 cases of HIV/AIDS have officially been reported in Afghanistan
but with evidence of increasing intravenous drug use in the country,
the threat from HIV and AIDS is a growing concern amongst health
sector officials," he told reporters.
Indonesia
While
on paper Indonesia doesn't have much of a problem with HIV and AIDS,
the huge country's relatively low adult HIV infection rate belies a
rapidly escalating level of infection among prostitutes, their
customers, injection drug users and prisoners, an AIDS worker told
AFP.
"Indonesia
has one of the fastest growing epidemics in the world now," said
Elizabeth Pisani, an epidemiologist with Aksi Stop AIDS, an AIDS
prevention and care group.
The
World Health Organization and UNAIDS warned in a report this month
that HIV in Indonesia, along with China and India, is in danger of
leaping from the high-risk groups and into the mainstream.
Indonesia
is the world’s largest Muslim country.
Malaysia,
Too
Also,
Malaysia has posted sharp increases in HIV-AIDS patients, a senior
minister said, prompting calls Sunday from AIDS activists for more
aggressive measures to contain the disease.
"In
terms of AIDS awareness, it is very high in Malaysia. But HIV cases
continue to increase because of drug addiction," Chua Jui Meng,
health minister told AFP in a recent interview.
"As
long as drug addiction continues in this country, this will pose a
problem in terms of increasing numbers of HIV patients," he
added.
Despite
tough laws including death for drug traffickers, Malaysia - which
describes all proven drug users as addicts - recorded 31,556 addicts
in 2001.
Chua
said almost 80 percent of new HIV/AIDS cases were drug addicts.
"As
long as drug problems increase in this country, you are going to have
HIV. We are not going to be able see a plateau. The numbers keep on
increasing. It is a curse very directly linked to drugs," he
said.
Chua
said prostitution accounts for a smaller number of infections.
In
conjunction with World AIDS Day Monday, the office of the United
Nations in Malaysia and Malaysian AIDS Council would organize a series
of AIDS awareness events.
Some
17 years after the first HIV infection case was reported in the
country, Malaysia had around 54,000 reported cases of HIV/AIDS as of
June 2002. By December 2002, 5,424 people had died of the disease.
