20/04/2001

Lay Catholic community, Mozambique to work against AIDS

ROME (CNS) -- A Catholic lay community in Rome and the government of Mozambique believe that working together with just $5 million, they can begin to save the African country from AIDS.

While most African nations have an AIDS education and prevention program, Mozambique hopes to become the first country on the continent with a widespread AIDS treatment program.

The project of the Rome-based Community of Sant'Egidio, which mediated the Mozambican peace talks a decade ago, will focus first on pregnant women. Each year it plans to offer 10,000 pregnant women tests for the virus that causes AIDS and to put those who are HIV-positive on the anti-AIDS drugs which, until now, have been widely available only in North America and Europe.

The therapy, which will begin in the 22nd week of pregnancy, has been proven to drastically reduce the risk of a baby contracting the virus during birth, said Dr. Leonardo Palombi, a physician and Sant'Egidio member who has been working for a year to set up the project in Mozambique.

He said that after a year of studying the HIV/AIDS situation in Mozambique, officials estimate that 1,500 of the 10,000 pregnant women tested each year will be HIV positive.

The mother's therapy will continue for six months, allowing her to safely breast feed her baby and, at the same time, to pass the anti-AIDS drugs onto the child through her milk, the doctor said.

``To save a mother is to save a family, not just her last baby,'' Palombi said.

Mothers with full-blown AIDS, an estimated 15 percent of those who are HIV positive, will remain on the drugs, which greatly increase life expectancy and, therefore, will reduce the number of AIDS orphans in Mozambique.

Sant'Egidio officials said an estimated 16 percent of Mozambique's population is HIV-positive; some 1.5 million people there are living with HIV or AIDS.

Thanks to anti-AIDS drugs, ``with a sigh of relief we can see that in the West and the North of the world, people can live with AIDS,'' but for most Africans, having AIDS has meant a quick death, said Mario Marazziti, the community's spokesman.

Not only do most Africans have no access to the expensive anti-AIDS drugs, they often cannot get the medicines needed to fight opportunistic infections and diseases such as pneumonia and tuberculosis, he said.

About 70 percent of the world's population with AIDS lives in sub-Saharan Africa, Marazziti said. Unlike North America, in Africa the disease is spread through heterosexual contact or from mother to child.

Sant'Egidio representatives and Mozambique's health minister signed a formal agreement in early April after a year of study and negotiation. The first laboratory specializing in HIV testing of patients and the nation's blood supply will open in May, Palombi said.

Three government hospitals and three public health clinics will be involved in initial stages of the program, along with new counseling centers, a new birthing center and new nutritional programs.

``It would not make sense to start a program with all of these drugs if people are dying first of malnutrition or tuberculosis or malaria,'' the doctor said.

``This will be the heart of a completely new health-care system for Mozambique,'' he said.

Between 100 and 150 government-salaried doctors, nurses and technicians will be part of the program, Palombi said. Many already have begun specialized training. Sant'Egidio will send three physicians to Mozambique each year along with another volunteer who is a professional in counseling, community organizing or nutrition.

Palombi said Sant'Egidio and the Mozambican government have estimated it will cost $5 million to fund the program for five years, including the cost of buying medicine.

``I know that does not sound like much money, but in Mozambique now the annual spending for health care is $2 per person,'' Palombi said.

Sant'Egidio officials hope that large foundations in Europe and North America will fund the program and that drug companies will sell them the necessary drugs at deeply reduced costs.

When 39 large pharmaceutical companies dropped their lawsuit against the South African government for authorizing the import of generic anti-AIDS drugs, Palombi said his hopes for cooperation from the companies grew.

Unlike the South African government program, the Sant'Egidio project does not envision the use of drugs manufactured in violation of the patents the companies hold, Marazziti said. While one may discuss the ethical implications of what the companies charge for the medicine, the 20-year patent protection ``makes possible the enormous private investment necessary for research.''

``We need a boatload of money and the medicines at a tenth of the cost,'' Marazziti said. ``We think the pharmaceutical companies would prefer giving cut rates on the drugs rather than lose the patents.''

Cindy Wooden