UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s special envoy for HIV and Aids in Africa has slammed authorities for turning a blind eye to the pandemic, resulting in a record 40% prevalence rate, state radio said on Sunday.
Radio Swaziland quoted Stephen Lewis as telling reporters just before his departure on Saturday that the ”kingdom’s leadership was too slow to recognise the threat of HIV/Aids on people’s lives and their response may have come rather too late for the kingdom to overcome the crisis it was faced with.
”Leadership must take a leading role in addressing the spread of the epidemic. There are a lot of things that are contributing to the spread of the epidemic and that includes those customs that renders women minors while it exposes them to the epidemic.”
It quoted the envoy as saying that Swaziland would have to move at ”lightning speed” if it wanted to bring down the HIV prevalence rate.
On Thursday, Lewis had told Swazi King Mswati III that ”in recent months… the kingdom of Swaziland has recorded the highest HIV infection in the whole world with almost 40% (of the total population of 1,1-million) testing positive.”
According to the last official figures in Swaziland, HIV/Aids affects about 38,6% of the adult population.
Lewis had said the prevalence rate in countries like Botswana — which at one time had the biggest rate of infection — had declined from 38,8% to 37,5%.
Radio Swaziland on Sunday quoted Lewis as saying that its was ”shocking” that a large number of orphaned children were not attending school although the government had ratified the charter on children’s rights to education. ‒ Sapa-AFP