African leaders urge urgent action against AIDS

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia -- African leaders attending an international conference on HIV/AIDS called on Sunday for urgent action to combat the devastating impact of the killer disease on their continent.

Kingsley Amoako, executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), appealed to African leaders to redefine their own response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

"The AIDS pandemic is undermining social and economic structures and reversing the fragile gains made since independence," he told the opening session of the five-day conference, which has drawn 1,500 delegates from all over the world.

	MESSAGE BOARD
Post your thoughts on AIDS prevention

"In parts of Africa, AIDS is killing one in every three adults, making orphans out of every tenth child and decimating entire communities."

Since the emergence of the epidemic 14 years ago, some 12.1 million children have been orphaned in Africa, out of the global estimate of 13.2 million, he added.

"Within the next 10 years, it is projected that there will be 40 million AIDS orphans in Africa."

Amoako said African leaders had shown a lack of political will to take early action to counter the pandemic.

The conference, he said, must agree a consensus which can be forwarded to an African summit on HIV/AIDS scheduled to be held in Nigeria early next year.

Salim Ahmed Salim, Secretary General of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) regretted that despite the long-standing recognition of HIV/AIDS as a menace to Africa, little serious action had been taken to arrest the pandemic.

"In most of our societies the message about HIV/AIDS has not yet reached the bulk of the people. There is little open discussion about it, and still in many of our communities the disease is met with stigma and discrimination which encourage concealment and silence," he said.

On Thursday, African heads of state are due to assemble in Addis Ababa for a keynote address by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

They are due to outline their countries' plans to step up the battle and to exchange views on an Africa-wide strategy. The presidents of Ethiopia, Botswana, Uganda and Rwanda are among the leaders expected.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For more Africa news, myCNN.com will bring you news from the areas and subjects you select.

See related sites about Africa

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.