Millions in the grip of forgotten pandemic

Published on Friday 8 May 2009 09:11

THE chances are if you pick up a newspaper today there will be a big story about swine flu. I would be surprised if there was even a mention of another global pandemic, one that had already killed 25 million people. This is the scale of the challenge posed by HIV/Aids.

At the time of writing, there have been 27 confirmed cases of swine flu in the UK. By comparison, there are over 50,000 people living with HIV in the UK alone and 33m worldwide. Last year, 2m people died from Aids.

While we are right to be worried about swine flu, we have no way of telling how serious it will prove to be. If it turned out that swine flu was anything like as serious as HIV/Aids, there would be public outcry.

The scale of the HIV problem is staggering. South Africa alone has 5.7m people infected with HIV, with around 1000 dying every day from Aids-related illnesses.

The situation is so desperate that half of all hospital beds in the whole of Africa are taken up by people who are HIV positive.

In Britain at the moment, if you were suspected of coming into contact with swine flu you would be immediately given antiviral drugs such as Tamiflu.

In Africa, the sad truth is, only one in three will get access to the anti-retroviral drugs that are essential for dealing with HIV.

The tragedy is that we know what causes HIV, we know how it spreads, we know how to treat it and to prevent the other diseases like TB and malaria that often follow in its wake. This is not a problem that is restricted to a particular country, age group, or section of society. It is a global problem that needs a global reaction.

Where are we going wrong? Yesterday, I was arguing in parliament for the government not to forget the millions of people living with HIV/Aids. It is vital we don't let these issues fall off the political radar and it is up to politicians to make sure we do not forget those people struggling with HIV, or our promise to help them.

John Barrett is MP for Edinburgh West and a Liberal Democrat spokesperson on International Development