AIDS Treatment a "Human Right," African Health Ministers Say

Of people with AIDS worldwide, 70 percent live and die in Africa, said African health ministers in a statement Thursday at the close of a two-day conference in Rome. The ministers appealed to wealthy countries to mobilize the economic and human resources necessary to help the world's poorest continent fight the epidemic. The officials based their appeal "in the name of a human right, which is called the right to treatment; in the name of intelligent globalization, which should be equally capable of globalizing solidarity." The ministers urged rich nations and pharmaceutical companies to help improve access to "the high quality treatment demanded by the challenge" of an epidemic that "cuts down as many human lives as a world war." Issuing the statement were ministers from the Central African Republic, Congo, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Senegal, Sudan, Tanzania, and Togo.

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