African leaders prepare AIDS battle plan

African heads of state meeting in the Nigerian capital Abuja on Thursday were expected to draw up a joint plan to tackle the AIDS pandemic, tuberculosis and malaria – the continent’s three biggest killers. “We must take up the challenge of working as a group with the international community to find a lasting solution to the disease which is a major concern to mankind,” said Republic of Congo President Denis Saso Nguesso. “The time has come for Africa to face the challenge ahead by harmonising our strategies in public health and strive for efficiency,” said Nguesso who is also Chairman of the 53-member pan-African organisation, the African Union. The three day Special Summit, which started on Tuesday, ran under the theme, “Universal access to HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria services by 2010.” Africa, home to just 10 percent of the world’s population, has 60 percent of the world’s AIDS cases; accounts for more than a quarter of all tuberculosis cases and every 30 seconds an African child dies of malaria. The main aim of the summit was to measure the continent’s success in meeting commitments that followed a previous Abuja summits it 2000 and 2001. In 2001, leaders signed up to increasing health spending to 15 percent of government budgets but five years later only a third of African countries spend 10 percent of their budget or more on health, according to an AU report. The Special Summit will also prepare Africa’s common position to the UNGASS on AIDS (UN General Assembly Special Session on AIDS) to be held in New York in June.