African leaders told to face up to AIDS

HEADNOTE

Health

A high-level commission on HIV/Aids and governance in Africa has emerged from the Franco-Africa Summit in Paris. It includes details on how to stem the tide of the pandemic across the continent, including

links between HIV/Aids and governance in various sectors, including agriculture, youth and the military. At the conference, UN chief Kofi Annan said the recommendations would open the eyes of African policy makers on the impact the life-threatening disease was beginning to have on the ability of African countries to tackle their many development challenges. He said greater shares of national budgets had to be allocated to health care systems, bearing in mind the extraordinary proliferation of AIDS orphans, whose number had reached 11m, with the forecast that by 2010, 20m in Africa would have lost one or both parents, "It would be unconscionable to allow their plight to persist," he said.