A targeted project to launch twinning arrangements between hospitals in Italy, France, Spain and Luxembourg and those in the developing countries most suffering from the Aids epidemic, where in some cases HIV infection affects over 30% of the population: that’s the objective of the “international network of hospital therapeutic solidarity against Aids”, a programme of interministerial collaboration launched in recent days in Rome by the health ministers of Italy, France and Spain, Girolamo Sirchia, Bernard Kouchner and Celia Villalobos Talero, and by Luxembourg’s minister of cooperation and humanitarian action, Charles Goerens. The four countries of the EU have now been joined in the project by Portugal, while Switzerland and the USA, Belgium and Norway have announced their intention to join. “It’s not a project of medical ‘neocolonialist’ type”, stressed Bernard Kouchner, while the Italian minister Sirchia pointed to “the exchange of advanced technologies” as one of its aims. The priorities include the training of local medical personnel, to be conducted both locally and in European structures. The selection of hospitals and the choice of the beneficiary countries is up to each government. It was estimated that in December 2001 there were 40 million HIV-infected and Aids patients worldwide (of whom 17.6 million women and 2.7 million children below the age of 15). France has allocated 9 million euros for partnership projects in Senegal, Burkina Faso, Morocco, Cambodia and Mali; Spain is involved in many countries of Latin America, while Luxembourg will finance two three-year projects in Rwanda for a total amount of 11 million euros. The beneficiary countries of the Italy’s involvement are all African. The Italian projects will be carried out in public hospitals or in liaison with religious orders, foundations, NGOs and international aid organizations.
