US STRATEGIC THINKTANK STUDIES HIV/AIDS IMPACT IN AFRICA

An influential US foreign policy group, the Council on Foreign Relations, has highlighted the potential security problems posed by the advancing threat of HIV/AIDS in low-income countries. In a new report, the organisation indicates how major fatal diseases are undermining the overstretched and complex "coping mechanisms" of local governing elites, especially in Africa.

Although the report plays down the impact of HIV/AIDS as a potential future "cause" of terrorist activity, the Council recommends that rich-country governments increase international co-operation on the disease accordingly. The report advises that existing global treatment schemes be enhanced, mainly in order to offset the need for even more costly corrective action in later years.

The impact of HIV/AIDS in eroding the skilled workforces and leadership in pandemic countries such as Botswana are well documented, although the report comes at a time when efforts to treat major diseases in poor countries are showing their first signs of success. Nevertheless, there remains a debate over the proper role of major drug companies in efforts to manage the treatment of HIV/AIDS. While increasing numbers of programmes -- such as Tanzania's plan to treat 500,000 sufferers free of charge by 2010 -- stand to benefit a minority of patients, Africa's ongoing difficulties with distribution and conflict are likely to remain a major obstacle.