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14/05/2004 |
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I defy anyone who gives the Community of Sant'Egidio half a chance not to be impressed. Born in Italy amid the leftist student protests of 1968, Sant'Egidio aims to combine social commitment with fidelity to the full range of Catholic teaching. In that sense, many Catholic observers see it as a model for the lay role in the world envisioned by the Second Vatican Council (1962-65). As part of its commitment to global justice, the community has long been interested in Africa. It was Sant'Egidio, for example, that engineered the Mozambique peace accords in 1992, ending a bloody civil war. Thus it was that on May 13, the health ministers of 13 African nations concluded a two-day session at Sant'Egidio's Rome headquarters with an "Appeal for the Fight Against HIV/AIDS in Africa." "HIV/AIDS affects the whole planet, but today 70 percent of its victims are born and die in Africa," that appeal read. "The therapy that allows people to live with the virus, and to live well, is available, but only to the rich world." "The right to therapy is a new human right," it said. "We ask for the costs of antiretroviral drugs and whatever else is necessary to diagnose and treat the disease to be decreased to costs compatible with the limited resources of our countries. We ask the most developed countries to mobilize human and economical resources truly capable of stopping this slaughter." Aside from this appeal to conscience, the meeting put a spotlight on Sant'Egidio's DREAM program in Mozambique: "Drug Resource Enhancement Against AIDS and Malnutrition." In 1996, the introduction of antiretroviral medications transformed HIV/AIDS from a certain killer into a manageable illness in the West. Sant'Egidio was determined to make the same transformation possible in Africa, and so in March 2002 it launched "DREAM." Through a combination of volunteers and donations, and relying on low-cost generic medications, some 95 percent of the over 4,000 patients under the program's care (1,700 taking the retroviral therapy) are still alive with a good quality of life after two years. Some 97 percent of children born from HIV-positive mothers do not have the disease. Perhaps most impressive, DREAM has had 95 percent compliance from its patients with the prescribed regime of treatment. This is a rate as good or better than in Europe or the United States, and it belies that prejudice that it would be useless to give Africans complicated medical treatments because they couldn't or wouldn't follow instructions. Sant'Egidio's experience using generic drugs is that they can treat an AIDS patient with the complete antiretroviral therapy for about $800 a year, far lower than most commercial medicines. "What this work has demonstrated is that indeed it is possible to provide treatment to people living with this disease, allowing them to live a normal life," Peter Coleman, minister of health of Liberia, told me after the formal signing of the appeal on May 13. "It is possible to transform this pandemic into any other chronic disease, like those in the developed world," Coleman said. "This is contrary to what the big pharmaceutical firms told us years ago, that it was impossible to treat millions of people at an affordable price. This model of treatment and prevention, as demonstrated scientifically by Sant'Egidio in Mozambique, is a model that should be replicated in most of Africa." More information about the DREAM project can be found at www.santegidio.org. A footnote: Coleman went out of his way to thank the United States and the Bush administration for its commitment to new funding for HIV/AIDS, and said he hopes other nations will follow suit.
John L. Allen
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