Your daily Selection of IRIN Africa PlusNews reports, 1/24/2005

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U N I T E D N A T I O N S

Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

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CONTENT:

1 - ETHIOPIA: New strategy launched to combat HIV/AIDS

2 - NIGERIA: MSF to expand HIV/AIDS treatment scheme

1 - ETHIOPIA: New strategy launched to combat HIV/AIDS

ADDIS ABABA, 24 January (PLUSNEWS) - Ethiopia is beginning to turn the

tide in the war against HIV/AIDS, but the virus is still devastating the

country, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said on Monday.

Speaking at the launch of the government's new three-year anti-HIV/AIDS

strategic plan in the capital, Addis Ababa, Meles warned that hundreds of

thousands of people were still dying.

" Even though our struggle is bearing some encouraging results, we must not

forget that we have one and a half million people infected by the virus, "

he said. " Even if the rate of progression of the epidemic is decreasing,

hundreds of thousands of our people continue to perish. "

His comments came as the government began the first-ever distribution of

antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) for up to 30,000 people this year. It

estimates that ARVs could prevent 78,000 AIDS deaths in the first year if

all people living with HIV/AIDS had access to the treatment.

Full ARV coverage, the government added, could also reduce orphan numbers

by 332,000 by 2008.

The new strategic plan - the fifth since the first ever strategy was drawn

up in 1996 - aims to boost health coverage countrywide and speed up

behavioural change. It commits greater government resources and pledges to

speed up local production of ARVs " as a matter of urgency " .

According to the Ethiopian government, around 1.5 million people are

HIV-positive. Some 12.6 percent of those are in urban areas, while 2.6

percent are in rural areas. The national prevalence rate is 4.4 percent.

Experts at the launch of the plan, however, noted that prevalence rates

were beginning to creep up in the rural areas. Since two cases were

reported in 1986, some 900,000 people have died, but that figure is

expected to double by 2008, according to health ministry projections.

" The vast majority are unreported and many more have died unnoticed and

unaided, " health minister Kebede Tadesse said. Deaths from AIDS-related

complications account for a third of all young adult deaths in Ethiopia,

he added.

Life expectancy in Ethiopia has also been slashed by five years to 46

because of the epidemic. Half a million children have been orphaned.

Ethiopian president, Girma Wolde-Giorgis, said HIV/AIDS had shattered all

levels of society, from individuals to families and had undermined

national security. " It is an enemy that does not give us a chance to

relax, " he said. " It is a cloud over our very survival. "

[ENDS]

2 - NIGERIA: MSF to expand HIV/AIDS treatment scheme

LAGOS, 24 January (PLUSNEWS) - Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said on

Friday it planned to sharply increase the number of people living with

HIV/AIDS who receive comprehensive treatment and counselling for free in

Lagos, Nigeria's largest city.

Tobias Luppe, who runs the MSF access to essential medicines campaign in

Nigeria, told PlusNews that the number of people provided with

comprehensive treatment and counselling in this city of 14 million people

would rise four-fold from 250 at present to nearly 1,000 by the end of

this year.

“This means enrolling more people living with HIV/AIDS in general as well

as at the same time speeding up the process of putting people on ARVs once

they have reached the defining stage,” he said.

MSF-Netherlands launched the HIV/AIDS care and support project at Lagos

General Hospital last August to offer a comprehensive programme of

treatment to people with HIV/AIDS.

Luppe said 250 HIV positive people are currently enrolled in the

programme, but only 50 receive antiretroviral drugs. The others have not

reached the stage where ARV treatment is deemed to be beneficial.

“The reason for the scale-up is that we re-analysed the potential of the

programme and we are investing in human resources,” Luppe said. “Thus we

can save more lives and at the same time serve as model of scaling up on

the national level.”

According to UN estimates, about four million of Nigeria's 126 million

people are living with the virus.

MSF said roughly 500,000 are in desperate need of ARV treatment to prolong

their life and improve their overall state of health. However, less than

15,000 were currently receiving the therapy.

“Just today, more than 900 Nigerian will die of HIV-related diseases,”

said Luppe. “These deaths will tear families apart, will separate parents

from their children, will have a heavy impact on this country. But these

deaths are not necessary and must be stopped.”

Almost two million Nigerian children have already lost their parents to

HIV/AIDS, according to UN statistics.

Luppe said the MSF project at Lagos General Hospital was a good example of

the sort of care and support that people living with HIV/AIDS need.

The project, implemented in partnership with the Lagos state department of

health, offers a comprehensive range of services, including testing,

counselling, medical care, nutritional support and free ARV treatment.

According to Luppe, patients lucky enough to be included in Nigeria's

national treatment programme currently pay 1,000 Naira (US $7) per month

for their ARV drugs. However, this fee does not cover the cost of drugs

required to treat opportunistic infections, nor the frequent laboratory

tests which are necessary and have to be paid for separately.

“Some 70 percent of Nigerians live below the poverty line. How will they

be able to finance their lifelong therapy?” Luppe asked.

He added that most of the MSF patients have trouble even financing their

transport costs to come to the hospital. If people have to pay, he said,

they will sell everything they own, to receive AIDS treatment. They will

cut money on their children’s education as well as on food and other

essential needs.

“But, sooner or later, they will have to interrupt their treatment because

they simply cannot afford their drugs anymore,” Luppe said. “It happens in

Nigeria.”

Through a worldwide access to essential medicines campaign, MSF has urged

governments, international organisations and drug manufacturers to cut

prices and simplify treatment protocols to allow more people access to ARV

therapy.

MSF has been caring for people living with HIV/AIDS in developing

countries since the mid-90s, but the medical relief agency only launched

its first ARV programmes in 2000. It currently provides antiretroviral

treatment to more than 23,000 patients in 27 countries, among them Guinea,

Benin, Burkina Faso and Nigeria.

HIV/AIDS has spread steadily in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country.

According to government figures, five percent of Nigeria's adult

population is now estimated to be HIV-positive, up from less than two

percent in 1991.

The National Action Committee on AIDS (NACA) said 100,000 people would be

enrolled this year in the government's own ARV treatment scheme. That

represents a six-fold increase on the present number of beneficiaries.

The number of government-run HIV/AIDS counselling, testing and treatment

centres is due to double from 50 to 100. Meanwhile, NACA's AIDS awareness

campaign is targeting 20 to 29 year-olds, who have the country's highest

HIV prevalence rate at 5.6 percent.

“Prevention and treatment are two sides of the same coin,” said Luppe,

adding that the Nigerian government “urgently needs to make the fight

against HIV/AIDS its top national priority”. “All people living with HIV

in Nigeria have a right to access comprehensive AIDS care, including

antiretroviral treatment,” he concluded.

[ENDS]

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