| Show In n Rural Zimbabwe AIDS Still Means Death Craig The Washington Post Little is easy these days for Gladys Walking tires her Talking hurts Andin And Andin Andin in long sleepless nights of coughing fits she lacks even the comfort of her husband who has declared her useless useless useless use less and moved away a But nothing she explained in a hoarse whisper is more painful than her fear that she will soon die of a mysterious disease effectively orphaning orphaning orphaning orphan orphan- ing her two school-age school daughters 29 has the thin arms slack-skinned slack face and glum stare of someone very ill She said she had heard of AIDS Yet all she knows about the disease is that it often causes the symptoms she's experiencing weight experiencing weight loss diarrhea coughing fever fever and and that here in rural Zimbabwe it is invariably fatalI fatalI fatalI fatal I wish to be healthy again but bilt now Im I'm doubting it will happen said her eyes fixed on the floor as her youngest daughter year old Florence sat unsmilingly beside her wearing a white dress AIDS is no longer an unavoidable death sentence in most of the world Even in much of Africa billions of dollars in international aid has made it a chronic controllable controllable controllable con con- disease for a small but growing number of patients with access to anti- anti medicine But this relief is arriving in a profoundly profoundly profoundly pro pro- uneven way dividing the continent into areas where AIDS is survivable and areas where it is not By this measure could not live in a worse place is a remote region in southern Zimbabwe a country whose public health system has been decimated by economic collapse and international isolation In southern Africa the epicenter of the global pandemic no country is as asfar asfar asfar far behind in treating AIDS according to World Health Organization statistics An estimated 18 million Zimbabweans have HIV the virus that causes AIDS Of that group need treatment immediately but only less than 3 percent percent are are getting getting getting get get- ting it according to a December report from WHO The need for treatment is is growing far more quickly than the capacity to provide provid it the report shows local clinic an arduous three-mile three walk from her home lacks not only medicine but also the kits needed to test for HIV Even the basics of modern health care care- syringes intravenous fluid antibiotics and elastic bandages ban ban- dages are dages are frequently out of stock a nurse at the clinic said There are no doctors there The nurses who have chronicled chronicled chronicled chroni chroni- cled decline have never mentioned either HIV or AIDS she said and nei nei- nei- nei ther term appears in the battered battered battered bat bat- paper folder of medical records she keeps The surge of international funding that is beginning to prolong the lives of Africans with AIDS has bypassed Zimbabwe almost entirely The U United Nations the World Bank and President Bushs Bush's AIDS initiative are focusing on other countries in large part because President Robert G. G reputation as one of the most undemocratic and anti anti- Western anti Western African leaders has kept donors away from Zimbabwe There is tension between the international community and the government of Zimbabwe said James Elder a UNICEF spokesman in Harare the capital But he added Dont take it out on children Lets Let's move the attention a little bit away from politics and put it on people The average amount of international funding each year in southern Africa is 74 per person infected with HIV according to UNICEF In Zimbabwe that figure is 4 The discrepancy is even more dramatic when compared compared compared com com- pared with sums received over the border in Zambia where international donors provide per infected person And though Zimbabwe is slated to get get agrant agrant a agrant grant of 14 million from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS Tuberculosis and Malaria the same agency rejected a request in December for more than million citing citing citing cit cit- ing technical flaws in the proposal The results can be seen in inthe inthe inthe the relative availability of medicine In Zambia anti anti- drugs are arc reaching 13 percent of those who need them according to WHO sta sta- sta- sta Zimbabwe's southwestern southwestern southwestern south south- western neighbor Botswana which has a much higher per capita income and receives substantial health care funding funding funding fund fund- ing from the B Bill ill and Melinda Gates Foundation is getting to 50 percent of those who need it Even in South Africa which has been widely criticized criticized criticized for its sluggish response to AIDS are reaching 7 percent of those who need the drugs In major South African cities such as Johannesburg and Cape Town the waiting list for subsidized government-subsidized AIDS medicines has virtually disappeared doctors there said While the governments of most countries hit hardest by AIDS have cooperated with international donors government has grown increasingly belligerent ent toward the West especially especially especially espe espe- the United States and Britain which he regularly attacks with caustic rhetoric |
