Southern Africa in death spiral on AIDS, food - WFP
Last Updated: 2004-06-22 12:08:07 -0400 (Reuters Health)
By Andrew Quinn
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Southern Africa is in a death spiral as AIDS exacerbates food shortages and government and social networks teeter close to collapse, the head of the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) said on Tuesday.
"If a 747 aircraft crashed every hour, there'd be an international outcry. That's the death toll we're facing but there is inadequate collective outrage," WFP Executive Director James Morris said at the end of a tour in the region, the worst hit worldwide by the global AIDS epidemic.
"The end result is that people are dying on a horrific scale and its victims are not getting the help they need."
Morris, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan's special envoy for Humanitarian Needs in Southern Africa, said there were some signs of progress in food production, with Zambia enjoying a surplus and governments implementing emergency programmes.
Article: http://www.reutershealth.com/archive/2004/06/22/eline/links/20040622elin011.html