Jesuit Network Calls for Renewed AIDS Effort in Africa

The battle against AIDS in Africa is far from over, but a current funding shortfall threatens all of the progress there so far, said the African Jesuit AIDS Network (AJAN), a Jesuit group in sub-Saharan Africa.

World AIDS Day is December 1 and will be marked this year by a grim reality: “that of waning international engagement in the struggle against the pandemic, reflected in serious funding shortages for lifesaving antiretroviral therapy,” AJAN’s statement said. The Jesuit-sponsored organization said it “has long felt that AIDS is simply not being perceived as an emergency anymore,” even though 1.9 million people were newly infected in 2008 and 1.4 million people died of AIDS-related complications.

The December 1 commemoration is a time to reflect on the reality of the AIDS pandemic and to address the “AIDS fatigue” that is in part causing the shortfall, the Jesuit organization said. In sub-Saharan Africa, a loss of political will and funding means severe shortages of life-saving antiretroviral therapy, without which AIDS may become once again a death sentence, said the Jesuit network. “We know full well that they need far more than just medicine to survive, but we also know that without these medicines, few of them will survive,” the Jesuits said.

Read AJAN’s full statement online. [CNS via America Magazine]