MALI: 'Declare HIV/AIDS a public health threat' - AIDS activist

President of the Malian Association of People Living with HIV/AIDS, Modibo Kane, on Thursday said if HIV/AIDS is declared a public-health threat just as smallpox, leprosy and tuberculosis were, discrimination against people infected with HIV/AIDS would be diminished. According to The Black World Today (TBWT) news agency, Kane said the Malian justice system provided no legal protection for people living with the virus. "All those having the virus have been victims of discrimination and stigmatisation," Kane said. Estimates from a 2001 survey by the ministry of health shows that out of a population of 10.5 million, Mali has 6,846 people living with HIV/AIDS. The survey also said that women made up 3,864 of that figure. "When employers find out about their workers' HIV status, they fire them without recourse while women and their children are frequently abandoned by their extended families when it emerges that the head of the household died from HIV/AIDS," president of the Association of AIDS Widows and Orphans, Aissaata Sacko told TBWT. Kane also questioned the effectiveness of the Malian initiative for antiretroviral drugs, adding that "most people with HIV/AIDS have low incomes and live in extremely precarious situations, so practically no one is able to afford this treatment". The World Bank estimates that sixty-nine percent of Malians live below the poverty line.