AIDS prevention needs a collective effort says President

[December 1, 2003 - 10.00 GMT]

“Prevention efforts require a collective approach, we cannot be complacent. The health sector alone cannot be left to handle this catastrophe,” President Chandrika Kumaratunga said today in a message to mark the World AIDS Day.
 

In 1988 the World Health Organization recognized the ‘First of December’ ‘as World AIDS Day. It was an attempt to focus global attention on the epidemic.

“A permanent cure for HIV/AIDS still appears to be in the distant future. In Sri Lanka, HIV prevention programs are relatively new, the capacity of institutions involved in the control of AIDS need to be strengthened” the President said.  

[Full message]

In 1988 that the World Health Organization recognized the ‘First of December’ ‘as World AIDS Day it was an attempt to focus global attention on the epidemic.  

The first reported case of AIDS was in the early eighties and there was no panic here in Sri Lanka.  Then we in Sri Lanka felt it was someone else’s problem.  

Today this dreaded disease has reached pandemic proportions. Sri Lanka has not been spared.  

World AIDS Day serves as an opportunity to honour all those who have helped advance HIV/AIDS research over the past two decades and more.  

On this 15^th World AIDS Day today, I extend my appreciation on behalf of all Sri Lankans to ‘The AIDS Coalition’ for their dedication during the past six years.  

I have greatly admired the courage and commitment of Dr Kamalika Abeyaratne who has pioneered this project and still continues to ably lead them.   

We in Sri Lanka owe our immense gratitude to this devoted group of professionals of the AIDS Coalition. They have done much since 1997 to educate the public and the health authorities and also to protect the fundamental rights of HIV positive patients.   

Now let us take a closer look at the global state of the epidemic or the pandemic however frightening and painful it may be. Five people worldwide die of AIDS every minute of every day. HIV has hit every corner of the globe.  

In our part of the World, that is South Asia there are 4.2 million people living with HIV/AIDS just below 1% of the adult population.  

In Sri Lanka at the end of last year there were around 4,800 reported cases. This may appear to be relatively a small number in a population of 19 million, but that is no reason for complacency. Numerous cases stay unreported. This is mainly due to limited availability of counseling and testing and a fear of facing the social stigma if identified as HIV positive.  

"People are speaking, quite casually of 100 million deaths before the pandemic is under control,” stated Stephen Lewis the UN envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa.  "And if there is no turnaround, the figure could be 200 million. That exceeds anything seen in World War I and World War II, or the Black Death that devastated Europe in the 14th century."  

In 1992 the Government in Sri Lanka initiated HIV prevention and control efforts through the National STD and AIDS Control Program [the NSACP]. Managed by the Ministry of Health the program is being implemented in collaboration with health services of the provincial Councils, STD clinics, and the National Blood Transfusion Service.  

Since its inception, the NSACP has made significant progress in improving health care for STD.  

The most vulnerable section of society is the young half of the global population is under twenty-five.  

With the startling spread of AIDS, youth worldwide face a dim future eighty-seven per cent of these young people live in developing countries. A recent UNDP report warns millions of young people are doomed to blighted lives because of severe poverty, early marriage and childbearing, poor education and the pervasive threat of HIV/AIDS.  

Our threats stem from poverty and the fall out of civil strife. The helplessness of scores of our women who work in the Middle East and the displaced who are forced to live in makeshift camps are possible causes for the spread of STDs and also AIDS.   

Prevention efforts require a collective approach we cannot be complacent. The health sector alone cannot be left to handle this catastrophe. Other ministries and departments, covering finance, education, transportation, the police force, and the military, as well as NGOs, the private sector, and civil society organizations should contribute. They are better placed to mobilize and provide services to groups at risk. A permanent cure for HIV/AIDS still appears to be in the distant future. In Sri Lanka, HIV prevention programs are relatively new, the capacity of institutions involved in the control of AIDS need to be strengthened.  

Let us on this World AIDS Day 2003; resolve to protect our Island nation from the spread of this scourge.  

I wish all you Ladies and Gentlemen here today success, in your efforts towards the prevention of HIV/AIDS.     

I thank you.  

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Last Updated Date: December 1, 2003  -10.00 GMT.