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=__Political Impact__ =

The main problem for politics in Africa now is Africa lacks political will to fight AIDS. One delegate at the end of the Eleventh International Conference on AIDS and STD's in Africa (ICASA) said, "It may have taken the death of an African president from AIDS for the leaders to take the disease seriously."

Not one head of state or goverment, or even the host president Fredrick Chiluba bothered to show up to ICASA which took place in Lusaka, Zambia in Septamber, 1999. Many delegates publicly showed grave concern over the absence of African presidents to the meeting about the AIDS epidemic going on in Africa. A presidents' pre-conference which was going to follow the main meeting, had to be cancelled. To the thousands of delegates at the ICASA meeting, this was a clear signal of the lack of seriousness and political will to do something about the AIDS epidemic.



The main reason why people in government are not responding to this crisis is because it doesn't affect them. Since they are higher class with more money and power, they feel they don't need to help the poor and lower class. Most presidents and heads of governments are relying on doctors and foreign help to solve this. Some even think they can't do anything to help, but they can and should. We're donating to find cures and doctors are experimenting, so they think other people will solve this for them. So, the main political impact is not wanting/being able to help solve the AIDS epidimic. There's a long road ahead to finding a cure and ending AIDS in Africa, political leaders should start helping to make this easier.

Works Cited: [|Africa lacks Political Will to Fight AIDS]