Southern African Leaders to Hold AIDS Summit

GABORONE (Reuters) – Heads of state of 14 southern African countries will meet in Lesotho on July 4 to seek a joint plan to combat the AIDS epidemic that is killing millions in the region and crushing economic growth, officials said on Friday.

GABORONE (Reuters) – Heads of state of 14 southern African countries will meet in Lesotho on July 4 to seek a joint plan to combat the AIDS epidemic that is killing millions in the region and crushing economic growth, officials said on Friday.The 14 states, members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), are all hard hit by HIV and AIDS and none has successfully reduced the incidence of infection. The Lesotho summit will be the first time the issue has been discussed by so many of the region’s leaders.”We have to come together to find a regional approach,” said Esther Kanaimba, spokeswoman for the SADC secretariat in Gaborone, the capital of Botswana.”Despite all our efforts, the disease is not abating. By sharing our experiences in care, treatment, and education about HIV/AIDS, we might be able to come up with a successful common strategy,” she said.The United Nations Development Program estimates that 40 percent of all HIV infections worldwide are in the SADC area, which has approximately one percent of the world’s population.Infections in southern Africa are in excess of 23.3 million and by 2015 life expectancy in the region is expected to drop to 1965 levels.Most affected are those in the prime economically active age group of 15 to 49 years, and the U.N. has estimated that the disease will cost South Africa alone an estimated $22 billion in lost economic development by 2010.The 14 member states of SADC are Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.(Source: Reuters, Fri June 27, 2003 04:29 PM ET)