Anti-AIDS Program Scores Successes In Africa

Anti-AIDS Program Scores Successes in Africa

When 30-year-old Daniel Chipeleka learned in 2005 that his wife, Miriam, was pregnant with their fifth child, he accompanied her to the Chembe Rural Health Center near the Congolese border and got tested, along with Miriam, for HIV.

"Coming to the health facility with my wife will help us know of our HIV status, and thereafter plan our future together," he said. At this U.S.-supported health center, nearly 70 women are tested and counseled each month, and three out of four women come with their husbands. Before President Bush's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) was launched in 2003, Chembe had no such services. Similar developments are reported in 12 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, where the PEPFAR initiative is concentrated.

PEPFAR, the largest international public health initiative ever, has scored some notable successes in turning the tide against the deadly epidemic on three fronts -- prevention, treatment and care.

PEPFAR has supported anti-retroviral drug treatment during more than 500,000 pregnancies, saving roughly 100,000 infants from being infected by the virus that destroys the body's immune system. The United States has supplied nearly 1.7 billion condoms, more than all other developed countries combined, and supports sexual and reproductive education for males as well as females, Global AIDS Coordinator Mark Dybul told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in October.

Helping raise awareness of the menace, American film stars Matt Damon and Ben Affleck visited Tanzania in September. At the Sékou Touré Regional Hospital, the actors sat down with patients taking anti-retroviral medications, hearing of both their health improvements and continuing challenges.

"They give us free [anti-retroviral] drugs," said Mwamvua Rajabu, a female patient who described how her family shunned her when she revealed her HIV-positive status, forcing her to move in with a friend and struggle to support herself and her child.

Staff members explained how the program has trained 54 volunteers to increase community involvement in caring for people living with or affected by HIV. These volunteers conduct home visits to ensure HIV-positive patients are doing well, confirm adherence to anti-retroviral therapy and provide emotional support through friendship and counseling.

"What stands out is how tangible the results are for the money being spent," Affleck said. "I've seen real, life-changing results." PEPFAR programs are carried out in close partnership with the government of Tanzania, and Catholic Relief Services (CRS) serves as the lead partner on two projects.

Dybul said partnerships are key elements in the PEPFAR battle. "The success of PEPFAR is firmly rooted in these partnerships, in the American people supporting the people of the countries in which we are privileged to serve, including governments, nongovernmental organizations -- including faith- and community-based organizations -- and the private sector, to build their systems and to empower individuals, communities and nations to tackle HIV/AIDS," he said.

Before PEPFAR was launched, only 50,000 people in all of sub-Saharan Africa were receiving anti-retroviral treatment, and the notion that the HIV/AIDS epidemic could be curtailed was thought by many to be quixotic.

But, as Dybul said, "PEPFAR is well on the way to achieving its ambitious five-year targets of supporting treatment for 2 million people, prevention of 7 million new infections, and care for 10 million people infected and affected by HIV/AIDS, including orphans and vulnerable children."

To build on this success, the Bush administration has called for doubling its initial fiscal commitment to $30 billion and setting new, higher goals -- increasing prevention to 12 million, treatment to 2.5 million and care to 12 million, including, for the first time, 5 million orphans and vulnerable children.

Of the three fronts on which PEPFAR is battling the epidemic, prevention is the most difficult. "The vast majority of HIV is transmitted through sexual contact," Dybul said. "Changing human behavior is very difficult -- far more difficult than determining the right prescription of anti-retroviral drugs, building a health system or creating a better life for orphans and vulnerable children."

In South Africa, PEPFAR has embraced Soul Buddyz clubs, established in 2,400 primary schools as a groundbreaking way of teaching children about their health and rights, in the belief that it is easier to teach safe behavior to children than it is to change unsafe behavior in adults.

The crux of the behavior change drive is summed up in the letters "ABC," which stand for "abstain," "be faithful" and "correct and consistent use of condoms." Difficult though it is, the prevention campaign in Uganda has brought down the HIV prevalence rate from 18 percent in the 1980s to 6.5 percent now, according to Dr. Alex Coutinho, the executive director of TASO, the largest HIV care and treatment organization in Africa.

ENDS

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