26 April 2001
The Organisation of African Unity Summit on Aids, Tuberculosis and other Related Infectious Diseases opened in Abuja yesterday in the wake of grim statistics that place Africa as the world's most devastated continent.
According to the UN, more than 17 million Africans have died of Aids since 1984, while 25 million are living with the virus. Since at least 36 million people are infected with HIV in the whole world, almost twice as many Africans are dying of the scourge as the rest of the world.
But it would be everyone's hope that the summit, attended by at least 47 heads of state, will seek answers to the most nagging issue: how to stem Aids. As OAU Secretary-General Salim Ahmed Salim indicated, the main purpose of the summit is to come up with a continental action plan on how to combat the scourge, for Africa suffers from the double handicap of being both poor and without access to cheap drugs to keep Aids' victims alive longer.
One of the planks in the action plan would be to seek finances to fight the pandemic. It is a fact that most African countries do not have the resources to wage a sustained war on the plague, and so a global effort is required. It is in that light that Dr Salim on Tuesday asked the world for $7 billion, saying the current $700 million annual assistance is but a drop in the ocean.
The other issue likely to be considered will be the role the state ought to play in providing cheaper drugs. Thousands of HIV-positive people are dying needlessly because they cannot afford these drugs.
There has been a controversy over the issue of generic drugs. Western pharmaceutical companies have even gone to court in South Africa to stop it procuring or manufacturing cheaper generic drugs.That the multinationals recently dropped the suit does not necessarily mean the war is won.
African states must act in concert and insist on providing cheaper drugs to their people whether Western multinationals like it or not. The summit should come up with guidelines on how to go about it.
It is everyone's hope that the two-day summit will not turn out to be a mere talking shop. Concrete recommendations followed by concrete action are the only things that will make the whole effort worthwhile.
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