Red Cross admits not doing enough to fight AIDS

NAIROBI, Kenya (Reuters) -- The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies admitted Thursday it had failed to do enough to combat AIDS, which it said would reap a grim harvest in Africa over the next decade.

Marking World AIDS day, to be observed worldwide on Friday, the Red Cross admitted that around 100,000 of its own volunteers had the incurable disease.

"The Red Cross was born on the battlefields of the 19th century but not even the horrors of war in the 20th century can compare with the loss of life we are going to see in Africa over the first decade of this new millennium because of the AIDS pandemic," said Bekcle Geleta, Africa head for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

"Almost as many people die in one year in Africa as did in the entire Vietnam War," he said in a statement.

The Red Cross said it would mobilize two million volunteers in Africa's 53 countries. It appealed for $10.5 million in donations for a new 10-year program it has called the African Red Cross/Crescent Health Initiative (ARCHI2010).

The United Nations says sub-Saharan Africa has 25.3 million of the 36.1 million people in the world living with HIV or AIDS.

Almost one in 10 African adults now has the virus and 3.8 million children and adults were infected this year.

Some 2.4 million Africans died of HIV-related causes in the past 12 months, bringing the death toll on the continent to over 15 million -- more than three-quarters of the world total.

But the Red Cross said the pandemic could be curbed.

"Through our permanent networks of volunteers, national societies are uniquely placed to effect behavioral changes on a large scale in the communities of Africa by spreading simple, culturally sensitive messages around abstinence, fidelity and use of condoms," said Alvaro Bermejo, the ICRC's health chief.

The international medical aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres said in a statement issued in Nairobi the price of HIV drugs to poor countries could be reduced by at least 95 percent.

"The negotiations between the drugs companies and health ministries have so far been characterized by a lack of transparency, lots of PR (public relations) stuff from these companies and very little real action," it said.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Red Cross - Red Crescent
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
Medecins Sans Frontiere

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