ZAMBIA: World Bank to support HIV/AIDS programme

ZAMBIA: World Bank to support HIV/AIDS programme

LUSAKA, 3 May (PLUSNEWS) - The World Bank has pledged US $42 million to help
Zambia's anti-AIDS campaign, but disbursement of the funds will hinge on the
response of an unpredictable parliament to a proposed new national HIV/AIDS
policy.

The Zambian government and the World Bank reached agreement late last month
on a programme under which the Bank would provide the funds to the Zambia
National Response to HIV/AIDS (ZANARA) project. However, this is predicated
on the passing of legislation that guarantees the provision of
antiretroviral drugs to people who need them.

If passed into law, the HIV/AIDS bill drafted by the Zambian government
would also criminalize the deliberate spread of HIV, the virus that causes
AIDS.

"One of the conditions that have been set are [for the government] to ensure
that anti-HIV/AIDS legislation is put in place," World Bank resident
representative Laurence Clarke told reporters. "We are aware that when
parliament sits in the next session, the government will table an HIV/AIDS
bill."

However, it is not clear if parliament, dominated by members of a hostile
opposition, will support the bill. Opposition parliamentarians defined their
political strategy in the House during its last sitting early this year,
when they derailed the national budget by slashing the government's
projected tax revenue and by refusing funding to some sectors.

While a concerted anti-AIDS drive led by civil society organisations saw
HIV-infection rates among teenagers dropping significantly in the 1990s,
Zambia's HIV/AIDS policy has largely remained ill-defined.

But in contrast to the previous government of Frederick Chiluba, the new
administration of President Levy Mwanawasa has undertaken to find the means
to make free anti-AIDS drugs available to the needy.

In a May Day address to the nation broadcast on Wednesday, Mwanawasa
directed employers to provide free antiretrovirals to workers who were
HIV-positive.

The United Nations has undertaken to help the government make antiretroviral
drugs accessible to ordinary Zambians, but is not sure whether or not the
drugs should be provided free of charge.

"We fully support the government's plan to make antiretroviral drugs
accessible to all and, in fact, we are currently helping it set up a pilot
project under which infrastructure to provide this service will be
developed," UNAIDS country programme advisor Kenneth Ofusu-Barko told IRIN.

"However, whether or not the drugs will be provided free or charge is a
policy decision the government will have to make. Some countries are able to
provide free antiretroviral drugs, and others cannot. We do not prescribe
one approach or the other. Each government makes its own decision," he
added.

Zambia has one of the highest HIV-prevalence rates in the world, with an
estimated 20 percent of its 10.3 million people believed to be HIV-positive.
The pandemic has pushed life expectancy down from a peak of over 50 years at
independence in the mid-1960s to around 37 years. Some 520,000 children have
been orphaned by AIDS since 1999, and that number is expected to rise to
895,000 by 2009.

Despite the alarming death toll resulting from AIDS-related complications,
only a few thousands of the over one million people who have HIV/AIDS have
access to antiretroviral drugs.

"Most of us do not use antiretrovirals because they are too expensive for
us," explained Kunyima Banda, acting coordinator of the Network of People
Living with HIV/AIDS, an organisation of over 3,000 members.

A month's supply of antiretrovirals in Lusaka costs about US $250 - an
impossible sum in a country where an estimated 80 percent of the population
lives on less than one dollar per day.

"We have been advocating for the provision of free antiretroviral drugs for
a long time, and they would be very welcome. However, providing the drugs
alone would not be enough. The authorities would also have to provide drugs
for opportunistic infections, and for food supplements. It is very important
that one maintains a good diet when one starts to take antiretrovirals.
Otherwise, the side effects may outweigh the benefits," Banda told IRIN.

"The programme would also have to be accompanied by continuous counselling
and monitoring to ensure that the recipients take the drugs consistently.
Can the government afford to do all this? It remains to be seen," she added.

[ENDS]

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