AIDS, Child Trafficking
Major Problems in Asia
Bali Consensus seeks concerted action
DENPASAR, Indonesia
The HIV/AIDS epidemic and child trafficking have reached alarming levels in the East Asian and Pacific region, prompting delegates to a recent UNICEF-sponsored regional conference on children to call for a concerted effort to stem the tide.
Countries in the region must make a concerted effort to tackle these problems, said Carol Bellamy, executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund. "All the hard-earned gains for children in such areas as poverty reduction, education, and nutrition will be swept away if we do not confront the HIV/AIDS threat," she said at the opening of the conference.
More than two million people in the region are already HIV-positive and infections continue to rise rapidly, said the Bali Consensus adopted by delegates from 25 countries at the end of a three-day conference in Indonesia's resort island of Bali.
It said there was widespread ignorance among the young about HIV/AIDS. Young sex workers were especially in danger, often forced to serve up to 10 customers a day.
The AIDS epidemic had also fueled demand for young prostitutes who were mistakenly thought less likely to be infected.
The report said more than half a million children in the region had lost one or both parents to AIDS and the number was expected to double by 2005.
"We are alarmed at the extent and progress of the HIV/AIDS pandemic," said the consensus. "In the years ahead we will also have to provide support for millions of children and young people whose lives have been severely affected by the illness of their parents, especially those who have been orphaned."
"The HIV and AIDS pandemic among children, serious malnutrition, trafficking and sexual exploitation of children are important challenges for the implementation of the Bali Consensus," Bellamy said.
Delegates said human trafficking involved increasingly large numbers of women and children, primarily for commercial sexual exploitation.
UNICEF estimated that 300,000 to 400,000 children in the region were victims of trafficking for labor, sexual exploitation, forced marriage, begging, and adoption. Girls under 18 make up one-third of those who have been forced to be prostitutes in a number of countries.
"These children are frequently subjected to physical and sexual violence and psychological trauma, and are highly vulnerable to HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases," the Bali Consensus said.
The document also said that most countries in East Asia and the Pacific have been unable significantly to reduce the maternal and neonatal mortality rates.
In Indonesia the death rate for babies is 343 in 100,000 births, Indonesian Health Minister Achmad Sujudi said.
AFP
Bad Diets to Blame for Obesity
ROME
The World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization have taken up the fight against bad diets that they blame for an alarming rise in worldwide obesity and chronic diseases.
The heads of both agencies presented a controversial new report by independent experts they said would provide the scientific basis for a global strategy to tackle the problems.
"We face a growing global epidemic of premature death and disability from chronic diseases," WHO director general Gro Harlem Brundtland said. "Cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancers, obesity are no longer rich countries' problems. With this report we are now ready, with a strong scientific base, to develop a strategy which will be presented to the World Health Assembly in May 2004."
FAO director general Jacques Diouf hailed as the 150-page study, prepared by 75 scientists who detailed the rapid rise in a host of chronic diseases around the globe and gave recommendations on how to stop the trend, as the start of a new approach.
Limiting fat, sugar, and salt intake-elements associated with the spread of Western-style diets-topped the list.
The report notably urged keeping fats to 15 to 30 percent of a person's daily caloric intake, carbohydrates at 55 to 75 percent, of which only 10 percent should be sugars, and protein at 10 to 15 percent. The diet should also include no more than five grams of salt a day, and at least 400 grams of fruits and vegetables, and should be accompanied by at least one hour of exercise a day.
The report conflicts with the interests of agri-food giants like Coca-Cola, Pepsi Cola, General Foods, and Procter and Gamble, and has triggered a sharp reaction from the powerful US Sugar Association.
AFP
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