Surgeon General Calls for Global Effort to Fight AIDS Epidemic

Speaking over the weekend at the PanAfrica AIDS Conference 2000 in Nashville, Tenn., U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher said that "the world has an obligation" to make an effort to stem the HIV/AIDS global epidemic, Panafrican News/AllAfrica.com reports. Satcher noted that 20 million of the 35 million HIV-positive individuals worldwide live in Africa, and added that the United States "has benefited from Africa on the AIDS problem," citing the testing of AIDS drugs in Tanzania and the Ugandan public campaign against the spread of HIV, which is now being used as a model for the United States. He "expressed hope" that an "AIDS Marshall Plan" would "emerge" from the conference. Ronald Dellums, chair of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, added that the epidemic was a "security threat" to the United States and that the country could "save itself" by offering assistance to African countries (Panafrican News/AllAfrica.com, 11/4). Also speaking at the two-day conference was Rev. Leon Sullivan, a civil rights leader who in the late 1970s composed a "set of ethical guidelines for American companies doing business in apartheid-era South Africa." He painted a "bleak picture" of the conditions in Africa, adding that people there "spend more time going to funerals than going to work." He also addressed the HIV/AIDS crisis in the United States, saying that more prevention and education efforts were needed for the African-American community (Sprayberry, Nashville Tennessean, 11/5).