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UNICEF sees hope in tackling AIDS pandemic |
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| Tuesday, 23 November 1999: HIV/AIDS continues to
wreak a path of devastation through sub-Saharan Africa and other developing
regions, with nearly 34 million people now living with the virus and more than
half a million children infected this year alone. But the United Nations
Children's Fund (UNICEF) said today that the world has the potential to turn
the AIDS pandemic around. "Some 14.8 million women and 1.2 million children under the age of 15 are living with the nightmare of HIV/AIDS, almost all of them in sub-Saharan Africa and other parts of the developing world," UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy said. "These figures evoke a vast scale of death and destruction and tempt us to throw up our hands in despair. But we must resist that temptation. There is hope, and the fight against the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the developing world is just beginning." UNICEF joined UNAIDS, the United Nations coordinating body for HIV/AIDS, in releasing these statistics at press conferences in London and Geneva. The UNICEF chief said one of the most encouraging signs was the drive and energy of young people in coming to grips with the AIDS crisis because they are at the centre of the pandemic. "Young people understand even better than many adults that, through prevention, we can slow the rate of infection -- and eventually turn it around. This is already beginning to happen. There are indications of a decrease in the spread of HIV in Zambia, particularly among young people between 15 and 19. And there are encouraging trends in Uganda, Senegal, and Thailand." Ms. Bellamy added that there has also been progress reducing mother-to-child transmission of HIV, including pilot voluntary testing and counselling centers for women. "Positive outcomes will require political commitment at all levels, Ms. Bellamy noted, involving a variety of partners in coordinated action. This includes breaking, once and for all, the conspiracy of silence that continues to hide the dimensions of the HIV/AIDS crisis from the very people most affected by it." "We need to take the positive route," Ms. Bellamy said. "We cannot give in to a pervasive mood of writing off whole generations in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. We know how to start tackling the HIV/AIDS pandemic. We must be willing to pay what it costs to turn that knowledge into the lifeline that it could be for millions of people. And we must ensure that what works in one place is transported to another until the pandemic is in full retreat." |
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| Please email media@unicef.org with comments or requests for more information, quoting CF/DOC/PR/1999/57 |
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