COORDINATING FAILURE

A U.N. Report Takes a Hard Look at Fighting AIDS in Africa Lawrence K. Altman, New York Times, March 5th , 2004

Billions more dollars will be needed to curb the spread of AIDS in Africa, but as countries increase their donations, the amounts will be less important than how well they are spent and in what context, a new report from the United Nations AIDS program said yesterday.

Pouring more money into programs to combat AIDS could do more harm than good unless they are effectively coordinated, the report, "AIDS in Africa," said.

Otherwise, the report said, major financing increases could serve to drive an "AIDS industry rather than to drive a massively improved response." The report was released at a meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

As H.I.V., the AIDS virus, spreads further, Africa will face "an unprecedented crisis and a challenge never before seen since the advent of slavery," Dr. Peter Piot, the executive director of the Geneva-based United Nations AIDS program, said at a news conference in Addis Ababa, according to Reuters.

The United Nations said the report was intended to improve decision-making and deepen public understanding of the possible course of the AIDS epidemic in Africa by 2025, when "no one under the age of 50 in Africa will be able to remember a world without AIDS."

By then, 89 million more people in Africa could be infected with H.I.V., under the worst circumstances, the United Nations said. An estimated 25.4 million people in Africa are infected now.

"The death toll will continue to rise, no matter what is done," the United Nations report said. "There is no single policy prescription that will change the outcome of the epidemic."

At least, no prescription that doesn’t violate the inviolable secular tenets that the sexual urge must never be restrained and Africans aren't responsible for their behaviour.