Leading article: A positive initiative to combat the ravages of Aids in Africa

Aids has been described as the scourge of our times. At its most extreme it has even been compared to the Black Death, which killed a third of Europe's population in the mid-fourteenth century. But there is one great difference with that appalling visitation. Then people did not understand how it was being spread or whence it came and thus had few weapons to deal with it. With Aids we do now understand a great deal about how it is transmitted and from where it came. And there are now treatments which can at least alleviate its worst effects and prolong life, if only we can provide them in the numbers and at prices which the poorest and worst sufferers around the world can afford.

Two years ago, there were virtually no anti-retroviral drugs dispensed in Africa. By the end of this year, thanks to government assistance under the G8 agreement at Gleneagles and private funding, there will be some 2 million people in sub-Saharan African who will be on drugs with the real hope of being restored to a full life. Around 20 per cent of all funding to fight HIV/Aids around the world is now supplied by the public-private partnership of the Global Fund, established in 2002 to fight Aids and other epidemics and diseases in the developing world. Founded only 20 months ago, the (RED) initiative, with the support of The Independent, has raised an astonishing $50m to help this Fund through the sale of the designer products of the participating companies, largely directed towards helping HIV sufferers in Ghana, Swaziland and Rwanda.

Why the concentration on Africa? Aids is not limited to that Continent, as we have good cause to know in Europe. All the latest information is that it is spreading fast in India, China and other parts of Asia, although officials have been reluctant to admit the true extent there. But the reality of this deadly disease is that most of the sufferers are concentrated in this, the part of the world with the fewest resources to combat it. A total of 68 per cent of people infected in the world live in Sub-Saharan Africa. Over 1,000 children are infected each day. Yet the average daily cost of anti-retroviral treatment is only 20p.

Of course Aids is not just a matter of drugs. There is a social and educational context behind Africa's particular vulnerability. There are still leaders in Africa who deny that it is sexually transmitted or as prevalent as it is, just as there are social mores which make it difficult to discuss openly in public the measures and health protection needed. Western aid agencies also have been a little too facile in blaming promiscuous African men for the rapid growth in numbers of HIV. Far more needs to be done at the educational and general health level if Africa is to overcome this curse that has not only caused the death of some 25 million of its inhabitants, but held back its economic growth and blighted the prospects of its children.

For the ordinary citizens here, however, the most pressing question is what we who are relatively blessed with access to education, health, drugs and wealth can do to help those without. Within months of the first establishment of (RED) at the beginning of last year, the Independent invited Bono to edit an edition of the paper with a cover designed by Damien Hirst as a way of promoting the fledgling organisation. We did it because we believe that the unique (RED) philosophy of raising cash through a percentage of the profit of allocated designer products would have more reach, fewer overheads and more business savvy than any other way. Nearly a year-and-a-half later, (RED) is ranked 13th among contributors to the Global Fund. And that, if our readers are willing, could be just the beginning.