iseases that kill are prevalent in Angola and while international agencies
are making headway against some, the battle against others remains.
Malaria and sleeping sickness are two of the major diseases which affect
the population, whilst Aids continues to spread. Angolans, like many
people in Africa, now face the prospect of new strains of malaria which
have become resistant to modern methods of control.
More than 25 million of the estimated 36 million people infected with
HIV around the world live in
sub-Saharan Africa. The 14-member Southern African Development Community,
of which Angola is a member, has tried, unsuccessfully so far, to persuade
the world’s major pharmaceutical companies to come to a collective
agreement to supply Aids drugs. Even relatively low-cost drugs which
could tackle other diseases are in short supply in Angola.
Some
Western firms are making an effort to stem the rising tide of disease
which is sweeping across some of
the world’s poorest countries. The Franco-German company Aventis,
for example, is donating medicine to fight sleeping sickness in Africa.
Incidences of sleeping sickness, a parasitic infection transmitted by
the tsetse fly, which if untreated leads to death, has risen dramatically
in Angola. There were three cases in 1975 at the outbreak of civil war;
now there are more than 120,000 cases.
Coimbra Adao Manuel, president and general manager of state-owned drugs
producer and distributor Angomedica,
says that, because of the dislocation caused by the civil war, there
are no reliable statistics on Aids infection.
Angomedica, which supplies chloroquine for malaria, as well as antibiotics
and other drugs, is desperately underfunded. Mr Manuel says the company
is working at only 20 per cent of capacity. “To get out of this
difficult situation, we need great investment from the state because
we need to modernise the firm,” he says.
“The second choice is to allow foreign participation in Angomedica.
We would like to have a partner with know-how and financial resources.”