- JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -
Earth Summit negotiators agreed that a World Trade Organization treaty
on patents should not prevent poor countries from providing medicines for
all, a key issue for those that cannot afford costly AIDS drugs.
-
- They also agreed that access to health care should be
consistent with basic human rights as well as religious and cultural values,
a measure that humans rights groups said enshrined women's rights to reproductive
health care.
-
- Following are details of problems, progress and priorities:
-
- AIDS
-
- AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) was first
reported in 1981 among homosexual men in the United States and has since
claimed about 22 million lives, almost 15 million of them in sub-Saharan
Africa.
-
- More than 40 million people are living with HIV/AIDS,
most of them in developing nations. The United Nations reckons that AIDS
will kill 70 million people over the next 20 years unless rich nations
step up efforts to curb the disease.
-
- South Africa has more people living with HIV/AIDS than
any other country, with about one in nine of the 45 million population
infected. Botswana is hardest hit, with more than one in three of its citizens
infected with HIV/AIDS.
-
- Six percent of all children in Africa are likely to be
orphaned by AIDS by 2010. Drugs to treat the disease are often too costly
for developing nations.
-
- Some developing nations are making progress against AIDS--Uganda
reduced the prevalence of AIDS to about 8% from 14% in the past decade,
according to UNAIDS.
-
- OTHER HEALTH PROBLEMS
-
- Almost 800 million people in developing countries are
not getting enough food to lead a healthy life.
-
- Eleven million children in developing nations die before
the age of five. About 70% are killed by diarrheal diseases, malaria, respiratory
infections, measles or malnutrition.
-
- Every year, about 8.8 million people get active tuberculosis
and 1.7 million of them die, mostly in poor nations. By 2020, 35 million
may die of tuberculosis unless prevention is stepped up.
-
- Malaria kills one million people a year, mostly children
in Africa. The World Health Organization reckons Africa's annual gross
domestic product would be $100 billion higher if malaria had been tackled
more aggressively 30 years ago.
-
- Between five and six million people a year die in developing
nations from water-borne diseases and air pollution.
-
- PROGRESS
-
- Life expectancy has improved for the planet's six billion
people to 66.4 years in 1995-2000 from 59.9 in the early 1970s. Between
1970 and 2000, deaths among children under five worldwide fell to 56 per
1,000 live births, down from 96.
-
- Since 1990, 800 million people have gained access to
better water supplies. Hunger has fallen in some nations but at current
sluggish rates it would take more than 130 years to eliminate.
-
- One study by a panel commissioned by the World Health
Organization showed well-targeted spending of $66 billion a year by 2015
could save eight million lives a year and generate economic benefits of
$360 billion a year by 2020.
-
- FEMALE CIRCUMCISION
-
- Women's health emerged as an unexpected hurdle at the
summit as campaigners battled over words they said pitched cultural practices
like female circumcision against abortion rights.
-
- In a last-minute addition to the action plan, countries
pledged to "strengthen the capacity of healthcare systems to deliver
basic health services to all...in conformity with human rights and fundamental
freedoms and consistent with national laws and cultural and religious values."
-
- Female circumcision is performed in 28 African countries,
some countries in the Middle East and also in immigrant communities in
other parts of the world.
-
- The process of cutting a young girl's clitoris is viewed
as ensuring chastity or enhancing beauty and in some cultures is deemed
necessary for a girl to become a woman. It is usually so violent it has
become known as female genital mutilation (FGM).
-
- London-based human rights group Amnesty International
estimates 135 million women have undergone FGM and roughly two million
girls are at risk every year, or 6,000 each day.
-
- Activists argue that unless health is linked to human
rights women would be at greater risk from diseases such as HIV/AIDS as
governments could make decisions on issues like contraception on religious
or cultural grounds.
-
-
- Copyright © 2002 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited
without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable
for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance
thereon.
|