More people died of AIDS on 11 September than in the terrorist atrocities. Most would not have had the drugs available to us, and their deaths would have been squalid and painful.

80% of the cases are in sub-Saharan Africa. In some countries over 25% of people between 15 and 50 are HIV+ or already have AIDS. Their economies are contracting and poverty is getting even worse. 13 million children are AIDS orphans. Only Uganda has seen a marked drop in new infections. The causes are taught openly in schools from an early age and the Government has attempted to get awareness across to society.

It is difficult to get the necessary behaviour changes because of the culture, in particular the dominance of men. Take, for example, shame. A woman who is infected may be shunned by her family and community, and may lose her children and her job. Given that, she may not be tested. Meanwhile she may infect others.

Many more drugs are necessary, not only to delay the onset of AIDS and relieve the symptoms, but to limit maternal transmission. The latter also requires cheap and safe milk substitutes in countries where sterilisation is not easily come by. For too long cultural issues inhibited the churches, but they are at last putting in place appropriate programmes and pastoral support. They have also been hung up by the side issue of the use of condoms.

On present trends, similar proportions of people will be infected by 2010 in the much more populous countries of Asia and the Caribbean. But in the United Kingdom we have become blasé about AIDS. This is partly because at £10,000 a year per person we can extend the life of victims, albeit with serious side effects. It is also because incorrectly, we think that it is largely confined to homosexuals. In 2000 most new infections here were among heterosexuals. We heard of an innovatory approach being taken by the Starfish Initiative. This is an exciting way of changing lives. But it can only be one very small part of the world-wide effort needed to control a disease for which there is neither cure nor vaccination. A coalition of the scale waging war today on terrorism has to be brought together.

Since you started reading this (assuming it took you three minutes) 16 adults and children have died of AIDS & related illnesses

Resources on Aids
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USPG
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CAFOD
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CHRISTIAN AID
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