ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT SAYS AFRICA, ITS ECONOMIC PROGRESS WIPED OUT BY AIDS, IS "RUSHING TO INDESCRIBABLE DEVELOPMENT CATASTROPHE"

Press Release
GA/SM/134

ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT SAYS AFRICA, ITS ECONOMIC PROGRESS WIPED OUT BY AIDS, IS ‘RUSHING TO INDESCRIBABLE DEVELOPMENT CATASTROPHE’

Orphans of Disease Number Millions, Life Expectancy of People in Southern Africa Being Pushed Down; Continued Global Attention Needed

This is the text of a statement made today by the President of the General Assembly, Theo-Ben Gurirab (Namibia), at the World AIDS Day symposium held at Headquarters on the theme of children orphaned by AIDS:

The magnitude of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on the African continent has exceeded our grimmest fears. By the time I finish speaking, at least 25 people who are alive at this moment will have died of AIDS. Many of them will leave behind helpless children, with their futures as uncertain as the wind or the end of the rainbow. Yes, “The Children Left Behind”!

For the first time in history, millions of children are being orphaned because of AIDS. Had they lived in wealthy parts of North America or Europe, their fate would already have been declared a human tragedy. Instead, most of the victims live in Africa, a continent scarred by oppression, poverty, disease and shattered by back-breaking debt burden, fratricidal wars and recurrent hunger.

Africa has been afflicted by horrors and devastation for the past two decades. Dr. Peter Piot, the Head of UN-AIDS, will address this death toll and human suffering in full. My goal is to impress upon you the magnitude of the calamity facing the continent. No part of society is spared -- from those with higher skills and expertise to the citizen whose labour is essential to the security of States to teachers who mould our future.

According to the World Bank, AIDS will kill almost 15,000 teachers in Tanzania by the year 2010, and 27,000 10 years after that. Not only is this a devastating loss of human life, but training new teachers as replacements could cost $37.8 million in a country already hard pressed for funds.

In Zimbabwe, half of all hospital patients have HIV or AIDS symptoms. Five years from now, Ethiopia will spend more than a third of its total health budget on treating AIDS, Kenya will spend more than half and Zimbabwe two-thirds. What will be left for those who suffer from other illnesses? My own country, Namibia, is one of the worst cases both in terms of the HIV virus and the AIDS disease itself.

- 2 - Press Release GA/SM/134 1 December 1999

In southern Africa, life spans are getting shorter. In the 1950s, people expected to live to about 44. As standards of living grew, the figure climbed until it reached 59. Today, AIDS is pushing it back down. Just five to 10 years from now, life expectancy at birth could be back at 45, its lowest point in half a century. It is as though nothing had been gained in all these decades.

It does not necessarily mean that the rest of the continent is better off. Far from it. The forty-ninth session of the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Committee for Africa, held in Windhoek, Namibia, from 30 August to 3 September this year, underscored the gravity of this human crisis across the continent and renewed its urgent call for international solidarity and assistance.

But what does this actually mean? What happens to a family when a member has AIDS?

First, it means that children are being deprived of their parents and future on a scale never witnessed in human history. It also means an already poor family may become destitute. In Côte d’Ivoire, studies in cities show that in households struck by AIDS, income drops by up to 67 per cent. Though there is less money, the family spends a lot on health care, so economies take place at the expense of food and especially education for the children.

This is the background I would like you to keep in mind as you begin to deliberate on the terrible plight of AIDS orphans. As AIDS wipes out Africa’s advances, the continent is rushing headlong into an almost indescribable development catastrophe. Africa has very little margin for manoeuvre in the face of a new crisis -– that of AIDS orphans. Africa cannot begin to face this crisis alone. You chose the right time and the right venue for this year’s World AIDS Day as we enter the new millennium.

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