Harare, 8 July 2003 -- African countries have been urged to take concrete actions to scale up access to care and treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) as these would impact positively on health, reduce the number of deaths from the disease, and improve overall socio-economic development in the Region.

Opening a workshop Monday in Harare on scaling up access to care and treatment for PLWHA in 17 countries in Eastern and Southern Africa, the Director of the Division of Communicable Disease Prevention and Control at the WHO Regional Office for Africa (WHO/AFRO) , Dr Antoine Kabore, said:

"Apart from reducing HIV/AIDS-related deaths, improved access to care and treatment for PLWHA would contribute to forestalling the collapse of the educational and health systems through the loss of human capital (e.g. teachers and health personnel), reduce hospitalization costs, improve investment in health care, reduce the cost of caring for orphans, stabilize productivity through the retention of workers, improve food security, and avert immense general social dysfunction."

Dr Kabore was represented at the meeting by the Regional Adviser for the Integrated Management of Childhood Illness Programme at WHO/AFRO, Dr Elizabeth Mason.

He observed that although Africa had only 10% of the world's population, the Region accounted about 30 million (70%) of the 42 million PLWHA worldwide. At least 3.5 million of PLWHA in Africa are children under 15 years of age, according to WHO estimates.

Noting that Africa's children were often referred to as the continent's future, he said this future should be secured through the institution of programmes that ensure the accessibility and affordability of antiretroviral (ARV) treatment which would prolong the lives of parents to cater for them.

He then called on workshop participants to develop a clear "road map" for scaling up and implementing care and treatment services at country level.

In his remarks, the Executive Secretary of the Commonwealth Regional Health Community Secretariat for East, Central and Southern Africa, Dr Steven Shongwe, said that scaling up access to ARV therapies required political will; visionary political and professional leadership; careful planning and mobilization of resources; and the adaptation and utilization of WHO and UNAIDS guidelines.

He described HIVAIDS as an "emergency" especially in Eastern and Southern Africa which has the highest burden of the disease in the world, adding, "Increased access to ARV therapy will help remove stigmatization and discriminatin as more people will share their experience and be motivated to know their HIV status, thus bringing hope instead of despair."

In his intervention, the Senior Adviser to the Executive Diorector of Family and Community Health at WHO, Geneva, Dr Dan Makuto, stated that only 1% of Africans in need of ARV treatment had access to it, compared to 85% in the developed countries, and 5% in parts of the developing world.

"We must scale up access to ARV treatment in order to close the huge and unacceptable gap between access and need, " he said. "There is simply no more time to lose if we if we are to conquer the HIV/AIDS epidemic. "

The three-day workshop would, among other things, come up with a status report on care and treatment for PLWHA in the 17 participating countries, develop a framework for scaling up and implementing access to quality care and treatment, and elaborate a framework for strengthening partnership in the provision of technical and financial support to countries.

A one-day meeting of Permanent Secretaries of Health Ministries in the 17 countries has been scheduled for Thursday to review and adopt the outcome of the workshop. The meeting of these senior decision-makers is expected to develop a consensus on ways of implementing the workshop's recommendations, and of strengthening partnerships to support and enhance their implementation.

For further information, please contact

Samuel T. Ajibola
Public Information and Communication Unit 
World Health Organization - Regional Office for Africa 
P.O. Box 6 Brazzaville, Congo.
E-mail: ajibolas [at] afro.who.int
Tel:+ 47 241 39378; Fax: + 47 241 39513
Tel. in Harare: 091 231 405