Vatican Calls for Free AIDS Treatment Across Africa

A top Vatican official called for the international community to provide “free and efficient treatment” for AIDS in Africa - beginning with pregnant women, mothers, and babies. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone spoke during an international conference organized by the Vatican’s Sant’Egidio Community to mark the 10th anniversary of the DREAM program (Drug Resource Enhancement against AIDS and Malnutrition). Since its launch in Mozambique in 2002, DREAM has been extended to nine other African countries.

According to Bertone, “universal access to care is not a Utopian idea. In Africa as in Europe, we have a duty to contact all seropositive pregnant women, to give them [antiretroviral] therapy, to enable them to give life to a child who is spared AIDS and to help him grow up in a maternal presence.” The AIDS-related deaths of mothers in Africa are destroying families and economies, he said.

Among the 180,000 people who have benefitted from DREAM, some 20,000 HIV-positive mothers have been followed up, revealing an average HIV transmission rate of 3 percent before the child reaches 18 months.

While the Vatican has been criticized for not accepting the use of condoms to prevent HIV transmission, Bertone said that “about 30 percent of centers for the treatment of HIV/AIDS all around the world are [Roman] Catholic,” notably in Africa.


The Friends of AIDS Foundation is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.

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