african states urged to implement hiv/aids policies

By Harold Ayodo (Source: AllAfrica.com)

May 2, 2007: Researchers have challenged African governments to implement policies and study recommendations on the fight against HIV/Aids.

The more than 500 experts attending a seminar on HIV/Aids in Kisumu on Tuesday criticised governments for weak health structures.

Participants said poverty remains a hindrance in the war against the disease and urged leaders to implement findings of various studies. The concerns were raised during a plenary session on Innovations in Access to HIV/Aids Prevention Services.

Dr Richard Muga set the ball rolling at the Tom Mboya Labour College, Kisumu, when he said health-care systems in Africa were weak to contain HIV/Aids.

"Africans' sexual orientation remains a major issue in the fight against Aids, but governments must ensure that health structures are strong," he said.

The President of the Rural Association Against HIV/Aids, in Senegal, Ms Mareme Kaire, said gays in the country had not been neglected in the fight against Aids.

"The National HIV/Aids Control Programme in Senegal has involved all groups, including homosexuals," Kaire said.

The participants at the three-day seminar heard that 80 per cent of gays in Senegal were bi-sexuals, which increased the spread of HIV. United Nations says there are about 40 million people living with HIV/Aids in the world, with 70 per cent of them in sub-Saharan Africa.

About two million people in Africa are on anti-retroviral therapy, according to a recent UN report. Kenya has about 1.5 million HIV/Aids reported cases, with about 100,000 patients on ARVs.

Experts attending the 4th Africa Conference on Social Aspects of HIV/Aids concurred with Muga that research reports on the disease should not gather dust on the shelves.

Eradication of disease is among the Millennium Development Goals the UN wants Third World and developing nations to achieve by 2015.