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[1 December 2011] - Due to a shortage of donations, the Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria has been forced to suspend its financing of programmes to combat these diseases. This decision has already had an effect on the health and life of millions, particularly in southern Africa. Today, World AIDS Day, Frederic Baele, the Terre des hommes delegate in Mozambique, responds and puts us all in the place of the Mozambicans. Two million people in Mozambique infected by the virus “In his autobiographic book, a former Reuters journalist, Aidan Hartley, wrote that to get into the headlines, it needs only one death in Europe, 50 in Asia or 50,000 in Africa (The Zanzibar Chest). The south of Africa is the area hit worst by the HIV and AIDS pandemic, and Mozambique remains at the head of the most severely affected countries. In 2010 in Belgium, the Institute of Public Health estimated that there were three new infections per day (1,196 new cases annually). This was a record, and made the headlines – which is great to speak about them. In Europe, 800,000 people are infected (of whom 22,000 in Switzerland). In Mozambique, there are nearly two million people living with the virus. In the past 10 years, one million Mozambicans have died from the consequences of the disease – between 140,000 and 170,000 per year (MONASO, Analise da situaçao do HIV e Sida e do acesso ao TARV em Moçambique, 2008). In the province where Terre des hommes is, in Sofala, the most optimistic estimates speak of 20 per cent of the population who are HIV-positive or have AIDS. The most pessimistic estimates have worked out that over 30 per cent of the sexually active population have the virus (these estimates are based on figures from the blood bank and screening campaigns, which reveal 70 positive tests out of 240). There are more than 500 new infections every single day. In Switzerland, all HIV and AIDS patients have access to antiretroviral treatment. In Mozambique, the Ministry of Health estimates that 300,000 people require antiretroviral drugs just to survive. At present, fewer than 90,000 of them can benefit from these drugs. Five years ago there were 19,000 of them. And the 90,000 people who can be treated today have access to antiretroviral drugs thanks to the World Fund. These figures are obscene. It is the equivalent of more than 700,000 infected people in Switzerland. If it were the same in Switzerland: of four people close to you, one would have HIV and AIDS. During the year you would go to at least three funerals of friends, colleagues or members of your own family, killed by the disease. In your community, only one single person would have access to treatment. In the south of Africa, some countries already have a stock shortage of antiretroviral drugs and screening tests (in Zimbabwe and in Lesotho). In Mozambique, it has been observed that the tests and treatments for HIV and AIDS, as well as for malaria, are becoming ever less available, especially in rural areas. The fault does not lie solely in the withdrawal of financing by the World Fund, but its current position can only worsen the situation. The cancellation of Round 11 clearly demonstrates that the country has fewer resources at its disposal for the treatment and prevention of HIV and AIDS. The humanitarian consequences are insidious; even if they are not as visible as with other disasters, they are equally significant. It is hard to build up a country with a sick population which has a life expectancy around half that of a Swiss woman. Between 600,000 and 1,000,000 children have lost their parents from this disease, and the educational sector cannot manage to train sufficient teachers to replace those who die. 10 per cent of the health personnel are also sick, etc. Aidan Hartley was an optimist with his last figure – the 50,000 deaths in Africa needed to make the headlines. The disasters now recognised in Kenya, Somalia and in the Sudan tip the balance towards the one million people needed to stir up the media and the general public. But even then they have to die fast and in one place." Further Information:
Owner: Frederic Baele