UNAIDS: Africa Cup of Nations to Help Africa Win War Against AIDS
By Staff Writer
LIBREVILLE---Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS and Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations (UNAIDS), Mr. Michel Sidibé in his commitment to kick AIDS out of Africa considers, the coming Africa Cup of Nations (CAN) 2012 can best be address the challenges of HIV/AIDS.
“Winning the Africa Cup of Nations (CAN) 2012 is something millions of people across Africa are dreaming of right now as the continent’s most prestigious football tournament gets underway in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. As nations join together in solidarity, spurring on their teams they should not forget that they are already winners…against AIDS,” he said in a statement to the media.
Africa has been at the epicentre of the epidemic since it was first discovered on the continent over 30 years ago, and Africans have been at the heart of the response. In recent years, the scale up of efforts across the whole of Africa has produced astonishing results.
Mr. Sidibé states that in every corner of Africa today babies are being born without HIV, even though their mothers are living with the virus. In Botswana, in Kenya, in Gabon and in Equatorial Guinea, families are now able to protect their children from HIV.
“This is an incredible achievement and one which was unthinkable just 15 years ago,” says Sidibé.
The total number of new HIV infections dropped by more than 26 per cent in Africa since the peak in 1997, and AIDS-related deaths are steadily decreasing as access to lifesaving medicines expands across the continent.
He expressed confidence in the continent’s continued fight to ensure that fewer and fewer people become infected and that no more people die from AIDS.
“For the first time in the history of AIDS, Africa has the best chance now to protect women, men and children everywhere from new HIV infections and to keep people living with HIV alive––this must now be the ultimate goal for Africa,” said Sidibé. “We know we can use antiretroviral medicines to prevent as well as treat AIDS––these are the same medicines that have been keeping people living with AIDS alive for more than a decade––in poor countries as well as rich ones,” he added.
He mentioned the Africa Cup of Nations 2012 as an example that can provide an exceptional opportunity to mobilise and re-energise Africans against AIDS as millions tune in and turn up to support their teams.
“As the 16 nations participating in the tournament prepare to make their supporters proud, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) is supporting an innovative AIDS awareness campaign by the Foundation of the First Lady of Gabon, Madame Sylvia Bongo Ondimba which is a true example of her leadership and commitment to the AIDS response.”
In a bid to change the course of the global epidemic, the campaign, “CAN SANS SIDA” (CAN without AIDS), will use the enormous popularity and outreach that football has across Africa to spread the word that zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths is possible in Africa, and thus protecting a new generation from HIV infection is possible.