Dr. Asha Mohammed And Abbas Gullet
26 July 2008
opinion
Nairobi — It is our opinion that, so far, the response by the international community to HIV and Aids is failing to keep pace with an evolving disaster. Of the 201 million people affected by natural disasters globally during 2007, a 40 per cent increase on the previous year, those suffering from HIV were among the hardest hit.
The disruption of medical supplies and subsequent interruption of treatment is evidently life-threatening. Malnutrition speeds up the progression of HIV.
Lack of clean water for food preparation and personal hygiene is especially dangerous for those with advanced HIV. In a disaster, HIV prevention programmes are often disrupted and populations at higher risk of infection are forgotten.
However, it is the epidemic itself that is most alarming. The United Nations estimates that last year alone, some two million people died from Aids -- bringing the total death toll to more than 25 million since the first cases were reported in 1981. It estimates that a further 2.5 million people contracted HIV last year.
Of the seven million people estimated to need anti-retroviral treatment -- which can delay the onset of Aids -- some five million still do not have access to these drugs. For countries in sub-Saharan Africa that have seen their societies torn apart by the virus or the numerous marginalised groups of people around the world who have been left to cope with death, disease and destitution, HIV and Aids is undoubtedly a disaster.
In February 2008, the Eastern Africa zone of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), in the framework of the Global Alliance on HIV, launched an appeal seeking nearly $68 million to scale up HIV programmes in nine of the 14 countries served by the Nairobi office. The appeal for the period 2008-2010 aims to provide services for 30,000 people living with HIV and 130,000 orphans and other vulnerable children.
Some 325,000 trained volunteers will reach an estimated 17 million people with messages on prevention and reducing stigma and discrimination in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.
The bottom line is that the response to HIV is failing to keep pace with the complexity of an evolving disaster. The International Monetary Fund has warned that entire nations risk a downward spiral into subsistence economies in three or four generations.
Far from recognising the long-term implications of this situation, official development assistance for health training and personnel development has actually dropped by 36 per cent to just 0.6 per cent of all development spending.
WITHOUT A PROPER DIET, MANY people living in food-insecure areas on the continent are at a disadvantage in following anti-retroviral treatment. In an attempt to bridge this gap as well, IFRC has embarked on a five-year food security initiative focusing on long-term investments and targeting 15 African countries.
The appeal, launched in March 2008 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, seeks to fight some of the root causes of hunger and malnutrition, and as a consequence, improve survival and living conditions for people living with HIV as well.
Some 2.25 million people, or nearly half a million extremely vulnerable families in Kenya, Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Namibia, Niger, Rwanda, Sudan, Swaziland, Uganda and Zambia, will work together with IFRC and other partners to improve their livelihoods.
This appeal aims at making available $43.5 million until 2010.
Some experts believe that the humanitarian community is poorly prepared to deal with conflicts or emergencies that occur in areas of high HIV prevalence and treatment access.
THE RECENT POST-ELECTION VIO-lence in Kenya put these fears to the test. The ensuing displacement threatened to erode past gains made in the significant reduction of HIV infection in the country.
Kenya Red Cross volunteers canvassed internally displaced persons' camps along with workers of other NGOs to locate patients on anti-retroviral treatment. A free help hotline was established by Medecins sans Frontieres, while the Ministry of Health set up satellite centres in the camps. Most of those concerned were able to receive their treatment.
Humanitarian organisations delivering the much-needed drugs opened their doors to displaced patients presenting a medical record.
But medicines alone are not enough to maintain the health status of those with chronic illnesses.
The challenges are enormous -- but if we fail to meet them, there will be little chance of reversing the spread of one of the most deadly viruses in history.
Dr Asha Mohammed is head of the Eastern Africa Zone of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Abbas Gullet is secretary general of the Kenya Red Cross Society
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