The head of the United Nations AIDS programme has warned that meaningful sustainable development cannot be achieved if the AIDS epidemic is allowed to devastate human resources and capacities. "If we continue to allow AIDS to drain human resources at an increasing rate, sustainable development will be impossible," said Dr Peter Piot, Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). "Quite simply, if you do not survive, you cannot develop."Dr Piot was speaking to the plenary session of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), taking place from 26 August to 4 September.
Equity in Health
UNAIDS: AIDS Chain Reaction Threatens Sustainable Development
WSSD: Summit Axes Renewable Energy Goals
In a deep disappointment to many developing countries and the European Union (EU), targets and time frames for the adoption of renewable energy have been scrapped from the final text of the world summit implementation plan. The US and the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), with Venezuela and Saudi Arabia at the fore, joined forces with Japan and Canada to sink an attempt, led by the EU, for a global renewable energy target. With the energy issue out of the way, ministers were finalising the clause on health care the sole outstanding issue. The US and the Vatican were still voicing adamantly their opposition to text that could in any way be interpreted to include abortion.
WSSD: Summit deal on drinking water
African ministers at the world summit in Johannesburg have agreed on action aimed at halving the number of people on the continent without water and sanitation by 2015. Richard Jolly, a UN adviser on water, said a permanent African Ministers Council on Water (AMCOW) would meet regularly "to find ways of providing water to all Africans".
Zim Set to Get Global AIDS Funds
THE long awaited Global Fund on HIV/Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria is now ready to disburse money to five countries that are still to be named, while working out mechanisms on the rest, a senior World Health Organisation official has said. Zimbabwe is one of the few African countries whose proposal was approved and is set to get $1,3 billion (US$22 million). The first tranche of $55 million is expected to be made available soon.
A bold proposal for poor African nations: Forget the debt
Some activists have begun encouraging African nations to stop paying debt payments and instead spend the money on health, education and social programs, such as anti-AIDS efforts, the Boston Globe reports. Although development specialists have suggested that the debt of sub-Saharan African nations be forgiven, others doubt that such a move will happen and have suggested a "more provocative" solution for the nations. Both Poland and Bolivia in the 1980s stopped paying their debts and later had their debts cancelled because they used the money to fund "social causes," according to the Globe.
Drugs, youth and the fairer sex in the face of AIDS 2002
Access to treatment, women and young people, those were the key points of the 14th International Conference on AIDS held in Barcelona, Spain. More than half of new infections occur among young people between the ages of 15 and 24 worldwide, yet young people's needs and concerns are rarely taken into account when planning strategic interventions to halt the spread of HIV. This was clear in regards to the number of young people attending the conference; out of the 15,000 delegates only 200 were young people.
EU to donate funds to fill gap left by withdrawal US funding
The European Union will grant 32 million euros, or about $31.8 million, to the United Nations Population Fund and the International Planned Parenthood Federation in an effort to "fill the gap" left by the Bush administration's decision to withdraw the United States' $34 million contribution to UNFPA. The funding will go to reproductive health care projects operated by UNFPA and IPPF in 22 developing nations. The money will be used to fund pre- and postnatal care programs, family planning services, sexually transmitted disease prevention, counseling on "avoiding [unintended] pregnancies and unsafe abortion".
Genomics and World Health
The most up-to-date WHO publication on the subject, the report attempts to help WHO Member States to ensure that genome technology is used to reduce rather than exacerbate global inequalities in health status.
New UNAIDS report warns AIDS epidemic still in early phase
A new report released by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) warns that the AIDS epidemic is still in an early phase. HIV prevalence is climbing higher than previously believed possible in the worst-affected countries and is continuing to spread rapidly into new populations in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Eastern Europe.
SOUTHERN AFRICA: Malaria threat on heels of drought
The coming of the rains in Southern Africa in the next few months will end the region's drought but usher in a new threat - an upsurge in malaria, Africa's number one killer. "Our past experiences from the '92 drought and other droughts is that after the drought breaks and the first rains fall there is a natural biological response from the mosquitoes. They move in large numbers. We must prepare to keep malaria down when the rains come," said Shiva Marugasampillay, chairman of the World Health Organisation's (WHO) 2002 Southern Africa Malaria Control Conference.
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