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- We daily witness elderly mothers mourning the untimely deaths of their children and a growing population of orphans. These are the traumatizing realities with which we have to contend, Mogae continued. Having enjoyed peace and security and steady economic growth, Botswana suddenly finds its social gains reversed by this scourge. The economically active in Botswana are being decimated, life expectancy is calculated to have fallen by 20 years, from 67 to 47, and half of those who become infected are under the age of 25. In Botswana, where about one in three adults are already HIV-infected - the highest prevalence rate in the world - no fewer than two-thirds of today’s 15-year-old boys will die prematurely of AIDS, a UN report concluded only this summer. - One of our major strategies to fight this rampant scourge has been the establishment of a multisectoral National Council that I personally chair, Festus Mogae told the Assembly. The thrust of our strategy is information, education and communication, combined with concerted efforts to destigmatize HIV/AIDS. One more day of delayed action is a day too late for thousands of our people, Mogae concluded. As developing countries, we cannot deal on our own with the whole spectrum of requisites for education and sensitization; testing and counseling; adolescent reproductive health; prevention of mother-to-child transmission; acquisition of retroviral drugs; and medication and care for affected populations. The AIDS toll in hard-hit developing countries is altering the economic and social fabric of society. HIV will kill more than one-third of the young adults of countries where it has its firmest hold, yet the global response is still just a fraction of what it could
be, Peter Piot, Executive Director of UNAIDS has commented on the AIDS
situation in Southern Africa. We need to respond to this crisis on a massively different scale from what has been done so far. Sources:
UN and UNAIDS
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