Red Cross says African AIDS epidemic equates to a disaster

According to a new study by the Red Cross the AIDS epidemic in southern Africa is so severe that it should be classed as a disaster comparable to floods or famine.

The 'World Disasters Report', an annual report from the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) says without doubt HIV/AIDS meets the United Nations criteria for definition as a disaster.

The UN classification for a disaster is a "serious disruption of the functioning of a society, causing widespread human, material or environmental losses which exceed the ability of a society to cope using only its own resources", and the IFRC says such a situation exists in sub-Saharan Africa.

Sub-Saharan Africa which is home to about two-thirds of the world's HIV-positive cases, has at least one person in ten living with HIV, this is in countries such as South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland and Zambia.

The report says the consequences of the epidemic are felt by all of society and not just those who are sick, because of the economic strain and social tensions imposed and any examination of the lives of most people living in sub-Saharan Africa is a cause for alarm.

According to the report the HIV virus is directly responsible for restraining and reducing human and resource capacities across societies because HIV infections and AIDS deaths are common among all workers across all sections of society.

The report warns these capacity constraints, along with the high costs of caring for people living with HIV, lead to diminished health and education systems, declining food security, skilled labour shortages and an increasingly ramshackle infrastructure.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) earlier this month estimated that the number of people in developing countries receiving antiretroviral drugs to combat HIV had risen sevenfold in the past three years to nearly three million by 2007 but says much more still needed to be done.

WHO says an estimated 6.7 million people in need of anti-retrovirals were still unable to access medicines, out of a total of 9.7 million.

The World Disasters Report warns that around 7,000 people a day contracted HIV last year and research earlier this year, found that more than two million children worldwide were living with the HIV virus in 2007, most of whom were infected before they were born.

Experts have called on governments to face up to the issue by tackling stigma, improving research and community care and guaranteeing clean, safe water and sanitation and campaigners are also calling for more targeted support to help sufferers.