Riasat Hussein Ali,  Deputy to the UNAID Director, United Nations

 HIV/AIDS is a global problem; the epidemic will explode in Asia in the next decade.  We must PUSH other countries and the medical community to do something NOW in Africa.  Everyone who needs treatment must be given it.  We must emphasize the devastation and appeal to human rights, just as the UN Declaration on HIV/AIDS does.  

Look what we have done already!  We  pushed the drug companies to lower their prices on AIDS drugs and to donate drugs--and we won.   They are on the defensive. 

But that is not enough.  Even at reduced prices--even at the low generic prices offered by CIPLA of Bombay--the African governments can't afford to buy.  That is why the UN must push and push to get the developed countries to  buy the drugs and to set up an infra-structure for delivery.  If we PUSH hard enough, they will act. 

We need  multiple programs at every level  from every type of organization--from governments, from private doctors, to Red Cross and Red Crescent, to missionaries and churches, to teaching hospitals, to pharmaceutical companies, to foundations, to corporations. 

 We must PUSH the world to  provide treatment to  who needs it in Africa.   Thousands and thousands need treatment.   Poverty and lack of facilities does not mean drugs won't work.  Look at the studies in Haiti and Brazil.    If the developed world give drugs, and set up clinics, and traveling clinics, they can treat EVERY one.  There is no reason for the rich in the west to say "prevention only, little or no treatment."  We need both.  If we pressure others to fund the costly things,  they will act.  

 

Cedric Worthingham,  Assistant to the Director,  UN Secretariat	Sassou Mjibola Deputy Director, African Regional Office World Health Organization	Kwezi Osangan,  Assistant to the Deputy Secretary, United Nations Secretariat
Dr. Sucheta Varma, Assistant to the Deputy, World Health Organization	Lin Bao Chin,  Assistant to the Secretary-General of the UN