AIDS represents "the greatest threat to Africa since the slave trade," according to the head of a network of church-sponsored prevention and treatment programs in Africa.
Jesuit Father Michael Czerny, coordinator of the African Jesuit AIDS Network, based in Nairobi, Kenya, said poverty "is both a cause and a consequence of HIV and AIDS."
"Poverty reduces people's choices and capacities and poverty is obviously an enormous obstacle, perhaps the principal one, to access to care and treatment," he said. "Many people in Africa are dying of AIDS because of poverty."
Sub-Saharan Africa is the region most heavily affected by the AIDS pandemic. With just 10 percent of the world's population, the region has more than 65 percent of the world's HIV/AIDS cases, according to a report issued July 6 by the United Nations.
Father Czerny said churches throughout Africa are "responding creatively and energetically" to the challenge of HIV/AIDS, even though church leaders at times have lagged behind.
"In Africa, the church is doing better than it is speaking," the priest told Catholic News Service. "There is more AIDS ministry going on, of great quality and variety, than you would think from what the bishops are actually saying. The bishops are not leading with their statements, but the people of God are leading with their responses.
"Many bishops don't see clearly how to integrate AIDS ministry into the normal life and work of the church," said Father Czerny, a delegate to the International AIDS Conference in Bangkok. "That's our current challenge, to integrate it, strengthen it and make sure it reaches every corner of the region."
Uganda is often cited as a success story in reducing the infection rate of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Father Czerny said the church deserves part of the credit.
"At the same time as the Ugandan government woke up to HIV and AIDS, long before nearly any other government did, the church was already at work," he said. "The biggest contribution came from religious sisters, including medical missionary sisters, who combined excellent care with excellent prevention.
"The peer-to-peer work they carried out, helping young people to resist the temptations to get involved in sex too early, went hand in hand with good care and government propaganda," Father Czerny said. "Together it all helped to reduce promiscuity and postpone the sexual debut, which, statistically speaking, are two of the most important things we can do to combat AIDS."
The lack of basic information about AIDS and how it is spread and prevented also remains a root cause of the pandemic, the priest said.
"If people have such information, even in a resource-poor setting, they can fight HIV and AIDS and many could live longer and better," he said.
The African Jesuit AIDS Network and Caritas Internationalis are producing a new manual for use in Africa. He said the manual, called "Rays of Hope," explains the virus, the medical treatment of HIV, the prevention and treatment of opportunistic infections, and nutrition related to the disease.
Father Czerny said he and other activists in Africa are increasing their advocacy for lower-cost AIDS drugs.
The resistance of some pharmaceutical companies and governments, especially the United States, to make lower-cost generic medicines available for people living with HIV and AIDS in poor countries has provoked strong criticism at the conference, which brought 17,000 researchers and activists from around the world.
Demonstrators at the conference closed down the giant two-story exhibit of GlaxoSmithKline July 12-13, claiming the pharmaceutical giant had failed to deliver on promises to produce lower-cost generic versions of its AIDS medicines in South Africa. With 5.3 million HIV-positive people, South Africa has the highest caseload in the world.
Among the protesters was Swazi Hlupi, an Anglican activist who directs an HIV/AIDS clinic in Durban, South Africa. She said her clinic had a long waiting list of those who couldn't afford antiretroviral drugs and were waiting for government funding. She said she didn't oppose GlaxoSmithKline making a profit.
"It makes good economic sense to make drugs available to everyone," she told CNS. "If they lower the price then more people can afford to buy the drugs. There's lots of money for them to make, and they will make money, but they must make their drugs available to everyone."
The spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa, and the stigmatization and silence that contribute to its growth, "require bold and broad action" from religious leaders, according to Hilde Frafjord Johnson, Norway's minister of international development.
"Few are in a better position to break this silence, to break the taboos, than religious leaders," she told a July 12 interfaith meeting at the AIDS conference.
"People trust the leaders of their church, their mosque, their temple. They trust their leaders to teach them how to live, how to behave, how to think.... Religious leaders must realize the power they have in the fight against HIV/AIDS, and use it to the fullest," she said. ---CNS |