HEALTH-AFRICA:
A Church Group Makes Strides in Supplying ARVs
Moyiga Nduru
JOHANNESBURG, Mar 19 (IPS) - The case for providing anti-retroviral
drugs to as many HIV-positive Africans as possible was made again this
week in South Africa, by the Community of Sant' Egidio, a Catholic
organisation.
Spokesman Mario Marazziti told reporters that the group had
established 13 centres in Mozambique under the auspices of the Drug
Resource Enhancement against AIDS and Malnutrition project (DREAM),
where it treated and cared for people living with AIDS. Around 16.4
percent of Mozambique's estimated 20 million people have contracted HIV,
according to the World Health Organisation.
Of the 70,000 people in Africa who currently receive anti-retrovirals
(ARVs), about 7,000 are reportedly under the care of Sant' Egidio.
"For us, people are never simple ‘emergencies'. We look at them as
bodies to be clothed, sores to treat, mouths to feed," said Marazziti.
With a small annual budget of five million dollars, DREAM organisers
are hoping that the World Bank will come on board as a partner in the
project. "Therapy is the only way to avoid (having) the entire struggle
against AIDS in the southern areas of the world fail, and much of
Africa, today and tomorrow, disappear," said Marazziti.
Nearly 30 million of the 42 million people infected with HIV
worldwide are in Africa, according to the latest statistics from the
United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). Sant' Egidio is
planning to extend its services to Malawi, Angola, the Central African
Republic, Guinea Bissau, Guinea-Conakry, South Africa and Swaziland.
Marazziti says ARV therapy has ensured that 97 percent of children
born to mothers receiving treatment from DREAM are HIV-negative.
A video presentation shown to reporters on Tuesday (Mar. 16) also
told of how a Mozambican, Isaias Joan Joao, had benefited from the ARVs
dispensed by DREAM. Although his bones were protruding from his lanky
structure when he first came to Sant' Egidio, Joao knew little about
AIDS. And, his family had all but given up on him.
"I lost a lot of weight. I couldn't sit. I couldn't walk. I needed
support even for simple activities like eating and bathing," he
recalls. "I was taken to the hospital and diagnosed with AIDS."
That was in 2002. By last year he had regained his weight. "My
neighbours, who had known and seen my condition, don't recognise me
anymore. They think I am dead," says Joao, smiling.
"Indeed, I was dead, but now I have resurrected," the 31-year-old
adds. "At the centre, they feed us, bathe us, treat us and follow up the
cases of those who are at home."
"The most interesting thing is I didn't pay a cent. But someone paid
my bill. I don't know who."
In February, experts and medical doctors from Sant' Egidio presented
the results of the DREAM project at a conference on viruses and
opportunistic infections in San Francisco. More than 3,000 scientists
attended the meeting, considered the most prestigious annual scientific
event on HIV/AIDS in the world.
Marazziti rejects the argument that economic and social constraints
often make it impossible for Africans to maintain ARV therapy. "If you
provide the proper environment for care and treatment, nothing is really
impossible."
"Testing without treatment and care will amount to a death sentence
for a person with AIDS," he adds. "But if they know that you treat them
and look after them, they will not refuse to have themselves tested. In
fact, they know that knowing their status will not amount to a death
sentence," he says.
Sant' Egidio, which works with local health authorities in
Mozambique, puts the cost of full ARV treatment at about 800 dollars per
year. "This is still a lot of money. But it is nothing compared to the
cost of war materials and cosmetics," observes Marazziti.
More than 350 million people in Africa, over half the continent's
population, live on less than a dollar a day, according to the World
Bank.
Michael Drysdale of AIDSLINK, a Johannesburg-based non-governmental
organisation, said ARVs should be distributed free to the poor. "We also
have to look at the issue of nutrition which is crucial in managing the
conditions of people with HIV/AIDS," he said.
(END/2004)
Send your comments to the editor
|
