HIV/AIDS must not be forgotten in present global crisis - Red Cross

With all the attention the current global crisis was receiving, the world needed to be reminded of humanitarian issues in Africa such as HIV/AIDS, Dr Astrid Heiberg, President of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said on Thursday.

"Let us not forget that almost as many people will die in Africa this year from HIV/AIDS as did in the entire Vietnam War, almost three million people," Heiberg said in a statement at the start of her visit to Kenya. Heiberg will be looking at the impact of HIV/AIDS in Kenya, where an estimated 600 people die each day as a result of the epidemic and many thousands of children have been orphaned as a result.

Through a network of 53 Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Africa, the International Federation has embarked on a major scaling-up of activities against HIV/AIDS as part of a 10-year strategy to mobilise some two million trained volunteers to work against the epidemic at community level, the statement said.

"Together with organisations such as NAP+ (Network of African People Living with HIV/AIDS), we aim to break the silence by overcoming the stigma which still surrounds AIDS, to advocate for treatment to allow parents to bring up their children and thus limit the number of orphans and reduce the immensity of suffering across this great continent," Heiberg said.