Africa: Impact of AIDS.

The Security Council on 10 January held an open debate on the impact of AIDS on peace and security in Africa. The historic session, during which 40 speakers presented their views, marked the first time that the Council discussed a health issue as a security threat. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the impact of AIDS in Africa was no less destructive than that of warfare itself. Although HIV/AIDS was a global problem, the fight against AIDS in Africa was an immediate priority. Overwhelming the continent's health services, creating millions of orphans and decimating health workers and teachers, AIDS was causing socio-economic crises which, in turn, threatened political stability.

United States Vice-President Al Gore, who presided over the landmark meeting, said the AIDS pandemic on the African continent made it necessary to see the concept of security through a "new and wider prism." World Bank, President James Wolfensohn said that the development gains of life expectancy in Africa, which had increased by 24 years over the last four decades, were threatened by the AIDS epidemic.

Mark Malloch Brown, Head of the United Nations Development Programme, said it was necessary to mobilize more international support and resources for Africa's frontline efforts to combat the disease. Peter Piot, Head of the. United. Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), said in countries where strong political leadership; public openness. and broad cross-cutting responses came together, such as in Uganda and Senegal, the tide was turning against AIDS. However, some $3 billion a year were needed to sustain and expand these success stories, he said.