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(Circulation. 2000;102:e9005.)
© 2000 American Heart Association, Inc.

Cardiovascular News

Cardiovascular News

Ruth SoRelle, MPH, Circulation Newswriter

International Conference Spotlights Disaster in Sub-Saharan Africa

As the 13th International Conference on AIDS convened in Durban, South Africa, on July 9, 2000, hundreds of attendees walked out on the speech by the nation’s controversial president, Thabo Mbeki, as he attempted to defend his policy that includes skepticism about the association between the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and AIDS and a refusal to provide antiviral drugs to prevent infected pregnant women from passing the organism to their children. Earlier, thousands of people infected with the disease marched in protest, demanding more equitable pricing for the drugs that fight HIV.

"Some in our common world consider the questions that I and the rest of our government have raised around the HIV/AIDS issue ... as akin to grave criminal and genocidal conduct," the Associated Press reported that President Mbeki told delegates at the opening ceremony of the 13th International AIDS Conference. "What I hear said repeatedly, stridently is ‘Don’t ask questions.’"

As delegates to the meeting left the room, President Mbeki attempted to defend his action as seeking an African solution to the problem. Africa’s AIDS crisis came into clear focus this year when the international conference was held for the first time in a nation in which a significant percentage of the population carries HIV. Of the 34 million people infected with HIV worldwide, 70% live in sub-Saharan Africa, according to information released by UNAIDS, the United Nations program that oversees the fight against the disease worldwide. More than 2 million people died of the disease in the . . . [Full Text of this Article]