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July 19, 2000, Wednesday, Late Edition -
Final
SECTION: Section A; Page 1; Column
4; Foreign Desk
LENGTH: 1172 words
HEADLINE: U.S. OFFERS AFRICA $1
BILLION A YEAR FOR FIGHTING AIDS
BYLINE: By JOSEPH KAHN
DATELINE: WASHINGTON, July 18
BODY:
The United States plans to offer sub-Saharan
African nations $1 billion in loans annually to finance the purchase of American
AIDS drugs and medical services, a program that greatly
increases the money available to combat the disease in a region that has become
its epicenter.
The program, which will be announced by the United States
Export-Import Bank on Wednesday, comes after five multinational drug companies
agreed in May to cut the prices they charge African nations for drugs to combat
AIDS. The loans will help poor nations to buy the drugs that
fight the complications and transmission of AIDS, and which are
expensive even at discounted prices.
It is estimated that
Africa already has 50 million people who carry H.I.V., the
virus that causes AIDS, far more than any other region, and
doing more to fight the disease there has become a central goal of the Clinton
administration and several European nations. Despite the severity of the
problem, international health officials estimate that only 5 percent of Africans
who carry H.I.V. are aware of the fact.
But wealthy nations have only
just begun to make money available to match their vocal pledges to address the
problem. The United Nations estimated recently that the amount of money devoted
to fight the disease in Africa needs to rise 10-fold to $3
billion annually if the nations hardest hit are to make significant progress in
education, prevention and care.
"This is at least a first step in
showing the world that Africa is important to the United States
and that we can make a dent in this terrible problem," said James A. Harmon,
president of the Export-Import Bank, which is an independent government agency
financed by Congress. "We think that this is the most significant funding
commitment by any international institution to date."
Mr. Harmon said he
expected that export promotion agencies in Europe and Japan would eventually
match the American initiative. He estimated that together wealthy nations could
make $3 billion available in annual financing to African governments that want
to buy pharmaceuticals, equipment and services.
The loans are not
without complications. Several officials said the administration was split about
the wisdom of the Export-Import bank's action, with some officials arguing that
it does not make sense for the United States to lend African countries billions
of dollars in export credits at a time when Congress is being pressed to forgive
past loans.
Most of the new loans, which will not require Congressional
approval, would be provided at commercial interest rates that now average about
7 percent, though a small percentage might be offered at a lower concessional
rate, bank officials said.
Wealthy nations and international lending
agencies are seeking to forgive as much as $100 billion in past development
loans to the most indebted nations, including many in Africa.
Some administration officials had promoted debt relief to a reluctant
Republican-led Congress as the best way for the United States to combat
AIDS, because it would free up money that African nations would
otherwise have to use to service their debts.
The loans are also likely
to increase an active debate among groups interested in development over the
best way to tackle AIDS. Many of the African nations and
private charity groups have argued that AIDS is a huge medical
and social crisis that requires more than discounted drugs and new loans.
"I think what the United States is doing is laudable," said Koby
Koomson, Ghana's ambassador in Washington, referring to the loans. "But the
pharmaceutical companies need to come around and see that the only way to fight
this pandemic is to donate whatever is necessary."
The United States
loans could help American pharmaceutical companies prevent the spread of generic
knock-offs of their profitable AIDS drugs to
Africa. Even with heavy discounts of up to 80 or 90 percent --
the companies have not made public the prices they will charge -- some drug
makers may still hope to sell their product profitably in
Africa.
The United Nations has said it is exploring the
possibility of helping African nations buy generic AIDS drugs
from Brazil and India for less money that even the discounted prices Western
drug companies might charge for the original product. The drug companies
consider generic alternatives a violation of their intellectual
property.
But it seems unlikely that Brazil, India or other
nations that produce such drugs for home consumption would have the export
financing available to help African nations buy the goods. The American loans,
along with a recent commitment by the World Bank to provide at least $500
million to help African nations set up anti-AIDS initiatives,
give added incentive to African nations to treat many of their
AIDS cases with Western medicine.
Even at 90 percent
discounts, a typical cocktail of AIDS-suppressing drugs might
cost $2,000 a year for a single patient in Africa, more than
four times the average per capita income in many of the worst-afflicted
countries.
Jacob Gayle, a senior technical adviser for the United
Nations AIDS Program, which is based in Geneva, called the
Export-Import Bank action "a major announcement" that takes a big step toward
providing the $3 billion in annual fund commitments that his agency considers
necessary to fight the disease in Africa.
But he
stressed that the problem is much broader than a lack of AIDS
drugs. African nations need to set up education and prevention efforts and
develop the medical infrastructure to administer drugs effectively before they
can make good use of loans to purchase medicine, he said.
The loan
program is the first time the Export-Import Bank has offered financing for drug
purchases by any nation, Mr. Harmon said. Moreover, the government bank plans to
make the financing available to the 24 eligible sub-Saharan nations for
five-year terms, an unusually long term for loans that are considered high risk.
He called the loans a pilot program that could be expanded or scaled
back depending on how African nations and drug companies respond.
Teaching Troops About AIDS
UNITED NATIONS,
July 18 (By The New York Times) -- At the urging of the United States, the
Security Council has adopted a resolution asking for more attention to education
about AIDS to be given to peacekeeping troops, who have been
carriers of the disease, especially in Africa. The United
Nations has been advising peacekeepers on the dangers of AIDS
and promoting the use of condoms, and the resolution reinforces those efforts.
In the vote on Monday, however, the American delegation failed to win a
stronger resolution. It would have asked for a data base to be kept on
peacekeepers to track national efforts to monitor the rate of infection with
AIDS and test troops. Countries supplying troops objected to
that proposal as an infringement of their control over military policies.
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