UN: West's Response to AIDS Inadequate

The Western world's response to Africa's unfolding humanitarian crisis caused by AIDS and hunger is woefully inadequate, Stephen Lewis, the UN top advisor on AIDS in Africa, said Sunday. While people in developed countries who contract HIV can live for years, Africans contracting HIV are condemned to death, Lewis said. "There must be something terrible with the moral quotient of the world," he said at the start of a three-day visit to Malawi. Aid workers say the AIDS epidemic has claimed the lives of about 7 million agricultural workers since 1995, which has added to widespread food shortages. An appeal launched by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan for countries to donate $10 billion to combat AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria had so far collected only $2.1 billion, he said. "We know there is a lot of money out there, we know there is plenty of food... but something must be profoundly wrong somewhere, something is morally wrong somewhere," said Lewis.

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