Dr. Sucheta Varma, Assistant to the Deputy, World Health Organization

Lin, I disagree with you. and  Kwame.  It won't do us any good to have super highways with no one to travel on them.   If private religious groups refuse to treat pariahs, then we have to make sure that some of the programs  do include them.  We don't have to shout it from the rooftops.  

It is unfortunate that the 3 pariah groups were not mentioned specifically in the UN Declaration, but neither were orphans or innocent wives, or victims of rape.   We can't use the exclusion of these groups in the wording of  the official declaration as a reason to avoid treating them.  

If we want to tackle AIDS in Africa, or in India or China or the US, we have to treat those who are HIV positive and who serve as the vector of transmission to others.  If we don't treat prostitutes, drug users, and homosexuals, then we will have expansion of HIV/AIDS for all time to come.    It is just good medical practice to treat them.   

We must work to  educate people in all countries that A VIRUS IS A VIRUS.    It is a disease!  It would be wrong for us to refuse to treat influenza or cholera because we don't like the people who become ill with it.    How many times have we criticized the western countries for ignoring malaria and dengue fever even though these are major health issues in tropical countries?   It's not "their disease" and they don't bother.  Well, HIV may not be "our disease" but it has reached the point where we are going to experience major problems like Athens (see Plagues).  

We need to have plans in place that treat those who need it.  We will not have enough medication to go around, but we need to save enough to keep societies going until we have vaccines.  That means we  need education/prevention, but also need programs to limit the transmission, as well as to save a core cadre within critical groups.