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AIDS success pivotal to MDGs

    JOHANNESBURG

    UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has warned that unless HIV/AIDS is beaten, Africa could miss the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted in 2000.

    The MDGs seek to halve a host of socioeconomic ills, such as hunger and poverty, high infant and maternal mortality, and lack of access to education and healthcare by 2015.

    In a message delivered for him by UNAIDS chief Peter Piot to the recent African Union summit against infectious disease in Abuja, Nigeria, Annan said: "That means we must guard against the danger of reducing, even by one iota, the priority we place on fighting AIDS in Africa and worldwide."

    Despite the challenges faced by the continent, experts at the summit noted some progress, including an improvement in access to anti-AIDS drugs from one percent in 2003 to 17 percent in 2005, and a decline in the rate of new HIV infections in countries like Zimbabwe.

    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

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