IRIN AIDS Briefs

MALAWI: AIDS activist receives UNDP award Catherine Phiri, an AIDS activist in Malawi, is one of four individuals from around the world selected to receive UNDP's Fourth Annual Race Against Poverty Awards this year. Phiri was one of the first people in Malawi to go public about being HIV positive. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan will present the awards at a special ceremony marking the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. The ceremony, with the theme "Breaking the Silence on HIV/AIDS," will be held on 23 October in New York. The Race Against Poverty Awards Ceremony is an annual event organized by UNDP to mobilize worldwide support to the goal of poverty eradication. An estimated 8 percent of Malawi's population of 9.8 million is infected with HIV, and 25 percent of the urban work force is likely to die from AIDS by 2010. The epidemic has already killed 300,000 people in Malawi and orphaned 390,000 children. The disease is the leading cause of death among people age 15 to 49. Phiri was quoted as saying that she dedicated her award to the people of Malawi, who faced their most challenging development crisis in HIV/AIDS. The honour, she said, "is particularly for those who have joined the counter-attack and understand that we have to first break the wall of silence and stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS if we are to win the battle against this epidemic." SOUTH AFRICA: SA can't afford to treat HIV/AIDS South African Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has said that the government "simply cannot afford" anti-retroviral drugs to treat people living with HIV/AIDS. During a debate in parliament Tshabalala-Msimang said: "We shall continue to treat those who present to the public health system for any condition as best we can." "At the same time, we reiterate that as a country, we simply cannot afford the use of anti-retroviral for wide scale treatment at their current prices." Government has in the past it has cited toxicity and possible long-term side effects as reasons for not providing drugs like AZT and Nevirapine to those infected with HIV. Public health doctors estimate that to treat HIV-pregnant women with Nevirapine to reduce mother-to-child transmissions would cost about US $5.4 million. However, to provide anti-retroviral to all 4.2 million South Africans currently infected with HIV would cost an estimated US $815 million. NAMIBIA: AIDS deaths skyrocket The number of infections of HIV/AIDS infection have skyrocketed between 1986 and June this year from four to 75,383 cases, respectively, Namibian Health and Social Services Minister Libertine Amathila was quoted as saying this week. Amathila was speaking at a three-day workshop on the impact of HIV/Aids on tertiary institutions in Namibia. The workshop was aimed at sharing experiences on ways to combat the pandemic in which Namibia's tertiary institutions were currently engaged. The recorded number of HIV/AIDS deaths in Namibia stands at 8,679. UNITED NATIONS: General Assembly to hold special HIV/AIDS session The UN General Assembly is planning to hold a special session next May in New York to coordinate and intensify international efforts to fight HIV/AIDS. The meeting follows a draft resolution adopted by the General Assembly last month that noted with "deep concern" the continued spread of HIV, which has caused "a more severe impact than was originally projected." The resolution said that resources dedicated to HIV/AIDS did not equal the magnitude of the problem. Last month, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan declared in his annual report to the General Assembly that HIV/AIDS was a serious development crisis. "The pandemic is destroying the economic and social fabric in the countries most affected, reversing years of declining death rates and causing dramatic rises in mortality among young adults," Annan said. The UN estimates that by the end of last year, nearly 35 million people worldwide were infected with HIV, more than two-thirds of them in sub-Saharan Africa.