Rapid spread of A.I.D.S. noted in Africa

Press, 9 May 1985, Page 26

Rapid spread of A.I.D.S. noted in Africa

NZPA-AP London A.I.D.S. has taken hold in Africa and is spreading rapidly through the central and eastern part of the continent, an international conference in Cairo reportedly has been told. Nine countries already are “seriously affected,” while in some, “infections have reached very high levels,” London’s “Observer” newspaper reported in an account of the conference. “In the cities of Zaire, one in 10 people is thought to be carrying the virus and in one study in Uganda, 20 per cent of those sampled were carriers.

“Quite frankly, we don’t know what is happening,” the “Observer” quoted Dr Fakhry Assaad, director of communicable disease control for the World Health Organisation, as saying. “There must be special factors responsible for its spread in Africa.”

A.1.D.5., short for acquired immune deficiency syndrome, attacks the gbody’s immune system, rendering a victim defenceless against other diseases.

The A.LD.S. virus first blossomed in the Caribbean and among homosexual communities, but has since been transmitted elsewhere, often by blood transfusion.

The “Observer” said that the disease was considered widespread in Zaire, Rwanda and Burundi, was spreading in Uganda and the Congo, and was in its initial stages in Tanzania, Zambia and Angola. Many of these countries were refusing to release details of the outbreak “because they fear their crucial dollar-earning tourist industries could be badly affected,” the newspaper said. A special conference on the disease in Africa would be held in October under the World Health Organisation’s aegis, it reported.