AIDS IS AN EMRGENCY.

by John Kiwanuka Ssemakula

Tuesday, November 18, 2003

There have been a slew of articles and statements all saying there is a need to re-think the approach to the AIDS epidemic. For some the impression is not enough is being done about the AIDS epidemic, and even worse, of the interventions currently being undertaken, not enough of the right ones are being performed. But this is not an entirely true picture, because people are taking this to heart and viewing the AIDS epidemic in a new light. AIDS is an emergency and should be treated as such.

It is encouraging to note that the UN itself now recognizes the HIV/AIDS epidemic as bigger than just a health problem. In September 2003 - Dr LEE Jong-wook, Director-General of WHO stated "The failure to deliver antiretroviral (ARV) treatment to the millions who desperately need it is a global health emergency" in New York.

"To deliver antiretroviral treatment to the millions who need it, we must change the way we think and change the way we act," said Dr LEE Jong-wook, Director-General of WHO. "Business as usual will not work. Business as usual means watching thousands of people die every single day."

Most recently an article in the BMJ entitled "Reframing AIDS" asks "Should governments go one step further and treat it [AIDS] as a disaster?"

Another UN agency is rethinking its approach to HIV/AIDS. paradoxically in a reverse the of its previous policies, The United Nations food relief Agency, the WFP is switching the focus of its humanitarian relief effort in Southern Africa away from emergency aid, according to a story in the BBC Online, Tuesday November 18 2003. The World Food Programme says it will concentrate on distributing nutritional supplements to HIV/Aids sufferers. WFP head James Morris said he believed a long-term recovery strategy was now needed rather than just a short-term food supply operation.

On the face of it may seem that the positions taken by the agencies are at odds with each other, but they are really two sides of the same coin.

But I have always argued that this is precisely the method required to tackling the HIV/AIDS epidemic; a mix of short, medium and long term solutions. In my article "A Deadly Embrace: Famine and AIDS in Southern Africa " published in August 2002 I argued that the approach to tackling the food shortages, mirrored the approach that should be taken to the AIDS epidemic.

"Food is the immediate treatment in cases of famine and indeed when treating nutritional related problems food is regarded as a drug and prescribed as such. In the case of HIV/AIDS the treatment is antiretroviral drugs as well as other medicines such as antibiotics for the treatment of opportunistic infections. In both cases the issue of availability, accessibility and affordability of the treatment is of great importance in dealing with the problem in the short to medium term. And also in the long term effective preventive measures will have to be put in place to prevent future problems. In the case of food security, it can be educating or encouraging more farmers to plant staple crops or to adopt more effective farming measures. The equivalent in the fight against HIV/AIDS is educating the public in order to induce changes in behaviour, accepting and adopting the use of protective measure such as condoms etc."

I welcome the call to declare the AIDS crisis an emergency. Declaring AIDS an emergency will rouse people to tackle the epidemic with the urgency it requires. Because without these measures the deadly embrace of AIDS, famine, and other problems will develop into a fatal dance that will continue to imperil the region for years to come.