Christian Aid calls for anti-poverty strategy to tackle HIV

-23/11/04

The UK-based international


Christian Aid calls for anti-poverty strategy to tackle HIV

-23/11/04

The UK-based international development agency Christian Aid says that poverty and debt are key drivers of the global HIV epidemic, and that drugs and hospitals alone cannot tackle the problem.

The agency says that some of the media messages being put out about HIV and AIDS are contradictory and misleading ñ particularly the notion that the situation is beyond control, on the one hand, but that the introduction of anti-retroviral drugs is sufficient, on the other.

Christian Aidís comments coincide with a newly released report from UNAIDS aimed at galvanising international support for anti-HIV strategies.

What is needed, Christian Aid says, is a multi-pronged approach. This should combine the supply of drugs to the most vulnerable communities, preventative work, and action on trade, debt and the provision of trained health care workers.

It is no good expecting clinics and drugs to solve the HIV problem in communities too poor and ill-equipped to handle them, say activists. They fear that the US and other Western governments are restricting strategies to tackle the HIV pandemic in order to save money.


Christian Aid calls for anti-poverty strategy to tackle HIV

-23/11/04

The UK-based international development agency Christian Aid says that poverty and debt are key drivers of the global HIV epidemic, and that drugs and hospitals alone cannot tackle the problem.

The agency says that some of the media messages being put out about HIV and AIDS are contradictory and misleading ñ particularly the notion that the situation is beyond control, on the one hand, but that the introduction of anti-retroviral drugs is sufficient, on the other.

Christian Aidís comments coincide with a newly released report from UNAIDS aimed at galvanising international support for anti-HIV strategies.

What is needed, Christian Aid says, is a multi-pronged approach. This should combine the supply of drugs to the most vulnerable communities, preventative work, and action on trade, debt and the provision of trained health care workers.

It is no good expecting clinics and drugs to solve the HIV problem in communities too poor and ill-equipped to handle them, say activists. They fear that the US and other Western governments are restricting strategies to tackle the HIV pandemic in order to save money.