AIDS: LET THEM EAT THEIR FIGURES
By Muzondwa Banda
New African Sept. 1999
As Zambia hosts the 11th International Conference on AIDS this month,
there are good tidings that at last - at long, long last! - some African
governments are not going to lie down and swallow any AIDS figures forced
down their throats by the Western AIDS establishment. And Zambia is
leading the charge.
Three thousand delegates from around the world were expected in Lusaka for
the AIDS conference (12-15 September). But even before they arrived,
Zambia was already ruffling some plum feathers by rejecting a recent
UNAIDS figure showing 20% of Zambians to be HIV-positive.
In rejecting the figure which he described as "alarmist", the director of
the Central Statistics Office in Lusaka, David Diangamo, made an important
observation: His government, he said, would be in a better position to
take measures to control the AIDS "epidemic" only if "sufficient and
accurate" data was gathered.
This should be true for the other African countries. Well-intentioned,
comprehensive and widespread surveys should be carried out, probably by
Africans themselves without involving donor or UN money, in order to
accurately determine the exact extent of the disease in Africa.
Diangamo said such research would greatly assist in clearing the current
confusion surrounding AIDS in Africa. His words deserves to be written in
tablets of gold:
"There has not been a national study conducted in this country to measure
the extent of HIV-AIDS," Diangamo said. "We will not accept that any
foreign representative in this country should tell us that 20% of the
adult population is HIV-positive. They will fail to make a breakdown of
this figure. Such statements are alarming the nation, let's get to
realities."
God bless his heart!
The long-maligned people of Africa expect more of such frank speaking at
the AIDS conference in Lusaka. African leaders and experts assembling
there should take the opportunity to look deeper and beyond the figures
forced on the continent by the Western AIDS establishment.
The conference should also get to the bottom of the origin of AIDS with
the view of stopping the cheap propaganda against Africa by the AIDS
establishment which, sad to say, is parroted by Africans themselves
without as much as a wink.
Already the conference agenda is filled with too many doom and gloom
topics. There is no provision for the "other side of the coin". Is it not
important for a conference of this nature to look critically at the recent
hypothesis that AIDS originated from an African chimpanzee?
Or the other orthodox views which New African has for years implored the
AIDS establishment to prove?
What about Diangamo's observation: Shouldn't the AIDS testing methods,
widely known to be flawed and unreliable, be challenged and better testing
methods called for?
On 29 July, a special investigative report in The Express (of London)
revealed how a shipment of 29 tons of blood plasma, infected with HIV, was
stopped at a port in Italy. Its destination - "the Third World" (read
Africa).
"It is rumoured that there is a thriving traffic in these products which
are sold cheaply to the Third World countries, where doctors are unaware
of the fact that they are infected with HIV," said The Express.
According to the paper, David Mills, the husband of Britain's health
minister, Tessa Jowell, had been quizzed by both Scotland Yard and
authorities in Italy over the matter. He was said to have connections with
the firm, Padmore, based in the British Virgin Islands which was at the
centre of the deal. When the news broke, the firm was quickly put into
liquidation.
The plasma was discovered to be well past its use-by date, and when tested
found to be HIV infected.
These are some of the issues that an important AIDS conference like the
one in Lusaka should discuss. But will they?
