Your daily Selection of IRIN Africa PlusNews reports, 4/4/2005

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CONTENT:

1 - SENEGAL: AIDS takes hold in pilgrim town of Touba

2 - ZIMBABWE: Global Fund grant to come through, finally

1 - SENEGAL: AIDS takes hold in pilgrim town of Touba

TOUBA, 4 April (PLUSNEWS) - Senegal has one of the lowest HIV infection rates in

Africa, but the central town of Touba, a Muslim shrine where over one million

people gathered last week, is a hotspot where prevalence rates have shot well

above the national average.

" We don't know exactly what the HIV prevalence rate is in Touba, but it is

considerably higher than the national average of 1.5 percent, " Doctor Mamadou

Dieng, who works in a health centre in Touba, told PlusNews.

" Right now, we're testing some 50 people a month and at least 10 of them are

HIV-positive, " he said.

Touba, 180 km east of the capital Dakar, is a shrine for followers of Cheikh

Amadhou Bamba, a Muslim cleric and hero of Senegal's struggle against French

colonial rule who founded the Mouride Islamic brotherhood there in the late 19th

century.

The Mourides, who preach the virtues of hard work and self discipline, have

grown to be the largest of several Muslim Brotherhoods in Senegal.

The expansion of their power and influence has seen Touba grow rapidly from a

humble village into a bustling town with an officially estimated population of

600,000 people.

But there is no HIV testing centre in Touba, so people living with AIDS have to

travel 55 km to the hospital in Diourbel, the regional capital, to seek

diagnosis and receive specialist treatment. And the hospital there only began

dispensing life-enhancing antiretroviral drugs to those who need them last

month.

But what most concerns Dieng is that the holy status of Touba and the

conservative nature of the town's society means that all public discussion of

AIDS and sexual misbehaviour is suppressed and people living with AIDS there are

heavily stigmatised.

He described it as a fertile breeding ground for the pandemic.

Dieng said the holy aura that surrounds Touba does not prevent the town's

polygamous men from emigrating to work abroad for long periods and coming home

to infect their family with AIDS.

Prostitution is formally banned in the town, but it continues to thrive

underground where it cannot be controlled, he noted.

The women of Touba also remain dominated by their men in what is still a very

traditional and patriarchal society and they are seldom in a position to press

their rights, the doctor said.

" The majority of the inhabitants of Touba are traders and they spend a lot of

their time abroad, leaving the women and children behind, " he said, noting that

some of the men are away from home for up to a year at a time.

Dieng said that many women in the town were illiterate and their low social

status meant they were not in a position to demand that their husbands used

condoms when they came home.

Even when wives catch HIV from their husbands, they suffer in silence and their

shame remains hidden.

Dieng said that when a polygamous man was diagnosed as having AIDS, it was rare

for his wives to come forward for testing or treatment afterwards. And if one

wife found she was HIV-positive she would often keep it a secret and fail to

tell the others.

Dieng told PlusNews that every time he came across an HIV-positive man in Touba,

he simply multiplied his estimate of the number of people infected by three.

The few women who are brave enough to come forward to seek treatment keep their

condition well hidden.

" Here, the women hide in the kitchen, the toilets or their room to take their

ARV drugs, " said Dieng. " Stigmatisation is very strong: to have AIDS is regarded

as a curse. "

He complained of a strong religious and social taboo regarding the discussion of

sex and AIDS in Touba and accused local Islamic leaders of showing little

enthusiasm for involvement with the national campaign against the pandemic.

" At [sensitisation] meetings we can't even mention the use of condoms, we have

to leave that kind of information for discreet discussion in the corridor

afterward, " Dieng said.

He complained that sex workers in Touba were not getting the health care they

needed because prostitution was illegal in the town, a state of affairs which

simply pushed the sex trade underground.

Every year hundreds of thousands of pilgrims flock to Touba where Bamba was

buried following his death in 1927 for a two-day festival of prayer and

friendship known as " The Grand Magal " .

The local authorities estimated that between one million and 1.5 million people

from all over Senegal crowded into town for the latest annual gathering.

Sober moral behaviour is demanded of the participants, but light relief is

readily available 15 km down the road in the nearby town of Mbacke.

There, many young pilgrims congregate for a spot of drinking and dancing and

sometimes too a spot of romance - more cause for the local doctors to wring

their hands with worry.

[ENDS]

2 - ZIMBABWE: Global Fund grant to come through, finally

JOHANNESBURG, 4 April (PLUSNEWS) - After a three-year delay, a US $10.3 million

grant to Zimbabwe by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is

" very close to signing " , an official told PlusNews on Monday.

" The grant had been approved in principal when Zimbabwe had applied for it in

2002 - unfortunately, there were delays. We are now just waiting for some minor

technical details to be addressed, " said Jon Liden, spokesman for the Global

Fund.

The grant is to be used to " strengthen and scale up disease prevention and care

for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in Zimbabwe " , and was part of the

government's application in response to the first round of Fund proposals in

2002.

When Zimbabwe made the application, $17 million was approved - out of a total

funding request of almost $23 million - but only about $5 million for the

malaria component made its way to the country.

Describing the delay as " unfortunate " , Gapare, director of the Batsirai

Group, a Zimbabwean HIV/AIDS NGO, welcomed the Global Fund's decision, saying,

" There is a desperate need of funds on the ground. "

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), which revealed last month that a child dies of

an AIDS-related illness every 15 minutes in Zimbabwe, also approved of the

Global Fund's decision.

" Zimbabwe had received no or extremely little HIV/AIDS funding support from the

main donor initiatives: the World Bank MAP initiative, the Global Fund, or the

US President's Initiative on HIV and AIDS (PEPFAR), " said UNICEF spokesman

Elder.

" In Southern Africa, the average annual donor spending per HIV-infected person

among these three initiatives is $74, compared to just $4 in Zimbabwe, " he

added.

The delay in the Global Fund's approval of HIV/AIDS funds for Zimbabwe has been

dogged by controversy. " We suspect the delay was political, " Gapare commented.

Aid to Zimbabwe was frozen by western donors in response to its controversial

land reform programme, and as a result of reports of violence and intimidation

during the 2000 and 2002 elections.

Last month UNICEF's executive director, Carol Bellamy, called on the donor

community to " differentiate between the politics and the people of Zimbabwe " .

Last year the Global Fund rejected Zimbabwe's request for $218 million over five

years, for " technical reasons. " Parirenyatwa, Zimbabwe's health minister,

accused the Geneva-based agency of political bias, which the Global Fund

strongly denied.

On Monday Liden again described the allegation as " misplaced and unfortunate. We

had to ensure that the money reaches the ground. We have already committed quite

a substantial amount of money to Zimbabwe - this grant is also substantial to

fight HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe. "

[ENDS]

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