AIDS a growing global "disaster"
Pastor Dale Morgan
AIDS a growing global "disaster"*
Reuters
By Robert Evans
GENEVA - HIV/AIDS infection rates are growing among intravenous drug
users, prostitutes and gay men around the globe but they are often
viewed as outcasts and refused treatment, according to a report issued
on Thursday.
The report, from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red
Crescent Societies, also called on governments and humanitarian agencies
to pay more attention to AIDS in their response to natural disasters and
armed conflicts.
"HIV is a long-term and complex disaster on many levels ... For
marginalised groups across the world -- injecting drug users, sex
workers and men who have sex with men -- rates are on the increase,"
said the Geneva-based humanitarian agency.
Those groups, living on the fringes of society in many countries and
especially in the developing world, "often face stigma, criminalisation
and little, if any, access to prevention and treatment services," it added.
The 248-page study, an annual World Disasters Report, gave no new
figures for AIDS sufferers but cited United Nations statistics that 2.1
million died from the disease last year.
The Federation said the HIV virus was at the root of a rolling social
crisis across southern Africa.
Its officials told a news conference the recent violence in Zimbabwe --
where until recently the battle against AIDS had benefited from a
widespread treatment network -- could disrupt medical care and make that
situation worse.
"We must not let what we have achieved be put into reverse," Federation
specialist Mukesh Kapila said. The body's deputy secretary general
Ibrahim Osman said it would help the Zimbabwe Red Cross double the HIV
sufferers it supports to 260,000.
The Federation said it centred its 2008 World Disasters Report on the
immune-destroying disease rather than floods or earthquakes because for
many communities the epidemic "is undoubtedly a disaster."
"Government services are overwhelmed by the need for support and
treatment, stigma still prevents access for many, even where services
exist, and communities are devastated by its effects," it said.
There were 405 natural disasters worldwide last year, compared to 423 in
2006, the Federation said. Those killed just under 17,000 people, the
lowest annual figure for a decade, but the numbers affected rose by 40
percent to 201 million.