Commonwealth universities urged to fight Aids
A Zambian academic has challenged universities throughout the Commonwealth to seriously engage with the issues involved in the HIV/Aids pandemic and has backed the controversial claim by South African president Thabo Mbeki that poverty, underdevelopment and illiteracy are among the principal contributing factors to its spread.
Professor Michael Kelly told the conference of the Association of Commonwealth Universities in Belfast that almost two-thirds of the world's young people who are HIV positive live in Commonwealth countries and that universities in countries across the Commonwealth may face a serious problem of HIV infection.
Professor Kelly, who was educated in Ireland and England and was ordained as a Jesuit Priest in 1961, has been Professor Emeritus of education at the University of Zambia since 2001. He told delegates at the conference of the Commonwealth's most distinguished academics that the universities had two basic responsibilities. He said: "They must ensure that even under attack from the epidemic they must continue to function satisfactorily and respond proactively to the needs of the Aids-affected society they serve."
In questioning why there was so much HIV/Aids in eastern and southern Africa - approximately one in every 10 in Zambia is infected - Professor Kelly said that sexual behaviour alone could not explain the differences in the way HIV had spread in Africa compared with the rest of the world.
"It is not because of excessive or uniquely high-risk sexual behaviour," he concluded, "but because there is something in the condition of those living in Zambia, and elsewhere in Africa, that makes them very vulnerable to HIV/Aids infection".
"President Mbeki of South Africa has drawn much criticism for the way he has linked HIV/Aids to poverty, but his views in this regard received international endorsement at the end of June when a special session of the UN General Assembly unanimously agreed that poverty, underdevelopment and illiteracy are among the principal contributing factors to the spread of HIV/Aids." he added.
Since the early 1990s Professor Kelly has become progressively more involved in Aids-related research and is currently chair of the board of Zambia Orphans of Aids. He also serves on the advisory board of the Regional Aids Initiative for Southern Africa.