The African Union (AU) Conference of Health Ministers concluded on Friday with the adoption of an eight-year health strategy for the continent that pointedly avoids singling out HIV/AIDS from Africa's general disease burden.
"AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria pose the greatest challenges," the document reads. "However, they should not overshadow the severe burden of other communicable diseases."
The strategy recommends taking an integrated approach to the continent's major health challenges, including weak, under-resourced health systems, widespread poverty, and rising levels of communicable and noncommunicable diseases.
"Experience has shown that single-disease efforts can be costly and lead to alternate mortality, making the case for integrated programmes," said the plan.
Earlier in the week, a coalition of 53 AIDS organisations and civil society groups expressed their concern that a draft version of the plan failed to address priorities for achieving universal access to HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care. A number of targets relating to that goal, agreed by African governments in May 2006 at an AU summit on AIDS, TB and malaria in Abuja, Nigeria, were missing from the draft plan.
An 80 percent coverage of antiretroviral treatment by 2010 was among these targets, but there is only a resolution to monitor and report on progress made towards meeting the Abuja commitments in the final version of the plan.
The new health strategy focuses on ways to strengthen Africa's weak health systems generally: the need for countries to meet the 15 percent target for health spending agreed to by African governments in 2001; the development of a pharmaceutical manufacturing plan for Africa; national human resources development plans that include more enticing packages and incentives for health workers.
The AU is charged with developing a common African position on the migration of health professionals to developed countries.
The close of the conference coincided with the publication of a new report, 'Paying for People', by the international relief agency, Oxfam, urging donors to provide more aid to solve the chronic shortage of doctors, nurses and teachers in the developing world.
Oxfam estimates that US$13.7 billion would have to be invested every year to fund an additional 4.2 million health care workers and 2.1 million teachers - half of them in Africa - urgently needed to break the cycle of poverty. The agency calls for 25 percent of bilateral aid to support the health and education budgets of poor country governments for a minimum of six years.
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