AFRO-NETS> Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report-Tue 17 July 2001

[Cecilia Snyder <csnyder@ccmc.org>]

Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report-Tue 17 July 2001
---------------------------------------------



*U.N. Envoy for AIDS in Africa Praises African Leaders' Efforts to
  Fight HIV/AIDS, Warns Against Complacency
*Zimbabwe to Distribute $23 Million to HIV-Positive Citizens from Na-
  tional AIDS Fund
*South African Court Orders Man to Pay Wife Damages for Infecting Her
  With HIV

Global Challenges

U.N. Envoy for AIDS in Africa Praises African Leaders' Efforts to Fight
HIV/AIDS, Warns Against Complacency

The United Nations Special Envoy for AIDS in Africa Stephen Lewis said
yesterday in an interview with Reuters that African governments have
"finally woken up" to the AIDS pandemic but must "act soon" if they
wish to avoid facing an "apocalyptic" crisis, Reuters/Boston Herald re-
ports. "The extraordinary passivity, which characterized the last number
of years is genuinely a thing of the past," he said, noting Nigerian
President Olusegun Obasanjo's declaration last month that HIV "may
threaten the continent with 'extinction.'" However, Lewis warned that
the death toll from HIV/AIDS is already "catastroph[ic]," adding, "If
we can't turn [the virus] around, God knows what's going to happen."
Lewis said that eliminating gender inequality is "key" to fighting
HIV/AIDS, stating, "This is a gender-based pandemic and unless we break
through on the question of women's empowerment and equality we will
simply not defeat the pandemic." However, Lewis said that there is "a
light at the end of the tunnel" for Africa's AIDS epidemic. "These gov-
ernments understand that their entire economic and social infrastruc-
ture is being shredded, their productive capacity is being devastated.
We now see the possibility of turning the tide," he concluded. Lewis,
who visited Kenya yesterday, is scheduled to also visit Rwanda and Ni-
geria (Reuters/Boston Herald, 7/16).            Zimbabwe to Distribute
$23 Million to HIV-Positive Citizens from National AIDS Fund

The Zimbabwe government will distribute $23 million (1.3 billion Zim
dollars) to people living with HIV/AIDS as soon as district AIDS com-
mittees submit satisfactory programs to the National AIDS Council, Min-
ister of Health and Child Welfare Timothy Stamps told the Sunday Mail
in an interview on Saturday. The Xinhua News Agency reports that the
funds will come from the National AIDS Trust Fund, which garners money
from a 3% levy on taxable income and corporate tax introduced last
year. The distribution announcement comes after a series of protests
nationwide in which HIV-positive activists accused the government of
"sitting on the money while people were suffering." Stamps also an-
nounced that the $1 million pledged by Zimbabwe for the Global AIDS and
Health Fund at the recent U.N. General Assembly special session on
HIV/AIDS will be withdrawn from the National AIDS Trust Fund (Xinhua
News Agency, 7/15).

In The Courts South African Court Orders Man to Pay Wife Damages for
Infecting Her With HIV

South African High Court acting Judge Naren Pandya last week ordered a
man to pay his wife $116,400 (one million Rand) in damages for infect-
ing her with HIV, marking the first time in South Africa a woman has
"claimed damages" for being "wilfully" infected with HIV by her hus-
band, the Johannesburg Sunday Times reports. The unidentified Durban
woman met her husband, who was already HIV-positive, on a trip to Mo-
zambique in 1995. They married in 1998, and she learned of his HIV
status five months after they were married from a doctor who performed
an emergency operation on the husband. "I was very shocked. I was para-
lyzed and just looked at my husband and started crying. He looked at me
and said, 'Sorry, sorry, sorry,'" she said. The damages are for "pain
and suffering, and the mental anguish and the progressive loss of
amenities of life" and to cover her medical expenses, according to
Pandya. "He stole my life. He imposed a death sentence on me and he
doesn't want to be responsible for it," the woman said of her husband
who has since left her, adding, "Husbands who are HIV-positive or have
AIDS must tell their wives." Jose Ferreira, the defendant's attorney,
said on Friday that he will seek to have the judgment set aside in fa-
vor of a trial because his client "never received the summons and wants
to defend himself" (Anstey, Johannesburg Sunday Times, 7/15).

The Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a
free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, by National
Journal Group Inc.c 2001 by National Journal Group Inc. and Kaiser Fam-
ily Foundation. All rights reserved.
Contact daily reports staff editorial
Tel: +1-202-672-5952
Fax: +1-202-672-5767
Mailto:dailyreports@kaisernetwork.org


--
Send mail for the `AFRO-NETS' conference to `<afro-nets@usa.healthnet.org>'.
Mail administrative requests to `<majordomo@usa.healthnet.org>'.
For additional assistance, send mail to:  `<owner-afro-nets@usa.healthnet.org>'.