Lewis vows to help in accessing funds

Stephen Lewis, the UN Special Envoy on HIV/AIDS in Africa, on Thursday gave a personal undertaking to ensure that Zambia rapidly accesses a US $19.2 grant from the Global Fund to tackle the pandemic. "I have made a personal undertaking to the government of Zambia through the president, Mr Mwanawasa, that I shall ensure the release of the $19.2 million meant for Zambia under the Global Fund," Lewis said at a press conference in the capital, Lusaka. So far, Zambia had only received about $3.6 million of the original pledge, Mwanawasa said this week. The special envoy noted that Zambia needed the money to implement an antiretroviral (ARV) drugs programme for a planned 10,000 people. Life expectancy had fallen from 52 years a decade ago to a current low of 37 years - a decline many have attributed to AIDS. During his three-day visit, Lewis said the pandemic was "seriously" threatening to reverse some positive economic strides the country had made, largely because of the impact on skilled manpower. He specifically referred to the agriculture sector, and studies that demonstrated the effect of HIV/AIDS on extension officers as well as school teachers in the rural areas. "On the economic side, we are flabbergasted and taken aback to see how HIV/AIDS has taken a toll on education and agriculture, virtually crippling capacity," Lewis said. However, he was heartened because Mwanawasa's administration was not afraid to admit that HIV/AIDS was a problem, and the very admission at presidential level that the country had an HIV/AIDS crisis could open many doors. An estimated 21.5 percent of Zambian adults are HIV-positive. Lewis said he was anxious to know what criteria the Zambian government, through its National AIDS Council, would use to distribute ARVs to an initial 10,000 people, out of a target population of 200,000. "The National AIDS Council has to state how the drugs will be distributed... Is it going to be the teachers first, or mothers going to antenatal? It is important that criteria be established. The other concern is that when you give 10,000 people AIDS drugs, you still have 190,000 untreated people who also want to stay alive," Lewis said. He said the importance of having ARVs readily available was that it would encourage Zambians to be voluntarily tested for HIV. Those testing negative would thereafter, hopefully, practice safe sex.