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By turning HIV/AIDS into a manageable condition, modern drugs could help defeat the stigma around it in Africa, a top UN health official has said.
Ebrahim Samba, Africa director of the World Health Organisation (WHO), said the growing realisation among political and business elites that antiretroviral treatment prolonged life was a key factor in changing opinions.
During the launch of a US $5.5 billion plan by WHO to provide antiretroviral medicine to three million of the world's HIV-positive poor by 2005, Samba warned that attitudes would not change overnight.
In a recent interview with Reuters, he said: "Working in Africa, you have to be pathologically optimistic - a pessimist doesn't survive here. In general, people are cynical. They have to see proof, and see evidence in their communities. But, gradually, as people see antiretrovirals work, they will increasingly go and get tested for HIV."
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
