AIDS in Africa greatest threat since slavery, Jesuit priest says

Published: 2004-07-14

BANGKOK, Thailand (CNS) -- AIDS represents "the greatest threat to Africa since the slave trade," according to the head of a network of church-sponsored prevention and treatment programs in Africa. Jesuit Father Michael Czerny, coordinator of the African Jesuit AIDS Network, based in Nairobi, Kenya, said poverty "is both a cause and a consequence of HIV and AIDS." "Poverty reduces people's choices and capacities and poverty is obviously an enormous obstacle, perhaps the principal one, to access to care and treatment," he said. "Many people in Africa are dying of AIDS because of poverty." Sub-Saharan Africa is the region most heavily affected by the AIDS pandemic. With just 10 percent of the world's population, the region has more than 65 percent of the world's HIV/AIDS cases, according to a report issued July 6 by the United Nations. Father Czerny said churches throughout Africa are "responding creatively and energetically" to the challenge of HIV/AIDS, even though church leaders at times have lagged behind.

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