Government spurns AIDS programme

The Namibian health ministry has refused to participate in a US $100 million AIDS prevention programme funded by a multinational pharmaceutical company, according to news reports. The programme, 'Secure The Future: Care and Support for Women and Children With AIDS', aims to expand medical research focusing on women and children and to improve community outreach over the next five years. The project was launched in Johannesburg last week and is aimed at Namibia, Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho and South Africa. A representative of the pharmaceutical company told IRIN the Namibian health ministry was not represented at the Johannesburg meeting. 'The Namibian' newspaper quoted a health ministry official as saying: "We have just launched our own National AIDS Coordination Programme and we are very committed to it." However, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) involved in the HIV/AIDS sector were quoted as saying the government's programme, inaugurated in 1990, has had very little impact on the prevention of the spread of HIV. A member of Aids Care Trust of Namibia told IRIN on Tuesday that although NGOs cooperate with the government on HIV/AIDS issues, "our main activity now is providing home-based care for people who are dying from AIDS. Namibia is now in the second phase of the epidemic, whereby a lot of the infected people are now dying from the disease." The source added that of the estimated 1.6 million Namibians, 150,000 are infected with HIV. According to 1998 figures from Namibia's UNAIDS office, a total of 5,856 people in the country died from AIDS with the northwest areas topping the list with 3,027 deaths, followed by the northeast with 1,177 deaths. A total of 53,330 people from five regions tested HIV positive.