UNICEF report says complacency hinders the fight against AIDS

Complacency in rich countries is blunting the fight against AIDS, according to the UNICEF report, Paul Cullen writes

Complacency in rich countries is blunting the fight against AIDS, according to the UNICEF report, Paul Cullen writes. Every day 1,000 children around the world die from AIDS, and this figure is set to rise to over 300,000 a day by the year 2010, it says.

However, the success of high-cost treatments in "managing" the effects of AIDS has led to complacency in the industrialised countries, according to the report. The complex drug cocktails prescribed to many Western AIDS patients are simply not an option for the poor in the developing countries.

"The fight against AIDS faces new enemies, complacency in the industrialised countries and divisiveness between the rich and poor nations," says UNICEF Ireland's director, Ms Maura Quinn.

The report calls for a shift of focus to benefit the majority of people affected by HIV in the developing countries of Africa and Asia. "For many people living with HIV and AIDS in the developing world, the highly successful treatments being researched will never be available to them. We need to prioritise research to find a cure for the disease so that all the nations of the world can benefit," Ms Quinn adds.

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About 90 per cent of the 23 million people currently infected with HIV live in developing countries, yet only 14 per cent of the £1.5 billion allocated each year for prevention is spent in the region.

In about 30 countries, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, AIDS is stalling and even reversing the gains being made in other areas of health prevention. In countries such as Botswana and Zimbabwe, AIDS is forecast to account for about 60 per cent of infant deaths by the year 2010.

According to the report, older health scourges are as prevalent as ever. Malaria, now resistant to many traditional treatments, kills a child every 30 seconds. Respiratory infections, mainly pneumonia, kill more than two million children each year. Simple health training and more research into vaccines could help cut these death tolls.