Mandela Receives Red Cross Award, Says HIV/AIDS "No Less Than a War"

Former South African President Nelson Mandela on Thursday during a speech in London said that HIV/AIDS is "no less than a war, a world war that affects all of us immediately," BBC News reports. Mandela, who received the British Red Cross Humanity Fellowship Award on Thursday night, was in London to deliver the annual British Red Cross Humanity lecture, which focused on the "terrible and threatening scourge" of AIDS. Mandela said, "AIDS today in Africa is claiming more lives than the sum total of all wars, famines and floods, and the ravages of such deadly diseases as malaria." He continued, "It is devastating families and communities, overwhelming and depleting health care services and robbing schools of both students and teachers." Mandela added, "Decades have been chopped from life expectancy and young child mortality is expected to more than double in the most severely affected countries of Africa" (BBC News, 7/10).

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