Africa Asia Middle East عربي Français free subscription IRIN Site Map RSS find PlusNews on facebook follow PlusNews on twitter
PlusNews
Global HIV/AIDS news and analysis
Advanced search
 Sunday 19 December 2010
 
Home 
Africa 
Blog 
Weekly reports 
In-Depth reports 
Country profiles 
Fact files 
Events 
Most read 
 
Print report Share |
GLOBAL: Scientific community urged to become activists


Photo: AuntieP/Flickr
Scientists as activists?
CAPE TOWN, 20 July 2009 (PlusNews) - The 5th International AIDS Society (IAS) Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention opened on Sunday in Cape Town, South Africa, amidst reports that funding gaps and poor management are threatening supplies of life-prolonging antiretroviral (ARV) drugs in at least six African countries.

Ahead of the conference, Dr Eric Goemaere, head of mission in South Africa for international medical NGO, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), said clinics all over the country had stopped enrolling HIV patients because they had run out of medication. "The waiting lists are growing by the day, risking that patients die before they start ARVs," he said in a statement issued by MSF. "It's unbelievable that a relatively well-functioning ARV programme has been allowed to be crippled in the space of just a few weeks."

Citing similar problems in Guinea, Uganda, Malawi, Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo, MSF blamed national and donor governments for failing to meet their funding commitments, or to respond to the crisis with the appropriate urgency.

Several speakers at the IAS Conference warned governments and donors not to use the global economic crisis as an excuse to back away from previous commitments to achieve universal access to HIV prevention and treatment by 2010.

"Already, we are hearing warnings about the sustainability of the roll-out of ARV therapy," said Dr Julio Montaner, chair of IAS 2009 and director of the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS in Vancouver, Canada. "A retrenchment now would be catastrophic for nearly four million people who are already on treatment in resource-limited countries, not to mention the six to seven million others who ... are still waiting for life-saving treatment."

Montaner chastised G8 leaders for leaving HIV/AIDS off their priority agenda at the recent G8 meeting in Italy, and not making good on 2005 commitments to fund the goal of universal access. "We must hold the G8 leaders accountable for their failure to deliver on their promises," he told the more than 5,000 members of the international AIDS community attending the conference.

Stephen Lewis, co-director of international advocacy organization AIDS Free World, and former UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, said the scientific community had a responsibility to fight the current "backlash against funding for AIDS" by telling "the power brokers of this world … of the risks and the benefits, and what will happen if they make the wrong choices."

Describing the conference as taking place at a "critical moment" in the fight against HIV/AIDS, just 17 months before the deadline for universal access, and when arguments that AIDS has received too much funding at the expense of other diseases were gaining ground, Lewis told delegates that "if ever the scientific community was to engage in public activism, that time is now."

ks/he


Theme(s): (PLUSNEWS) Care/Treatment - PlusNews, (PLUSNEWS) Economy, (PLUSNEWS) HIV/AIDS (PlusNews)

[ENDS]

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
Print report Share |
Countries
FREE Subscriptions
Your e-mail address:


Submit your request
Socialize
 More on Afghanistan
24/Nov/2010
HIV/AIDS: MSM groups hail pill to prevent HIV
14/Oct/2010
HIV/AIDS: Global Fund looks to private sector to fill funding gap
08/Oct/2010
HIV/AIDS: IRIN/PlusNews Weekly Issue 506, 8 October 2010
10/Sep/2010
GLOBAL: IRIN/PlusNews Weekly Issue 502, 10 September 2010
27/Aug/2010
GLOBAL: IRIN/PlusNews Weekly Issue 500, 27 August 2010
 More on Care/Treatment - PlusNews
15/Dec/2010
SOUTH AFRICA: Sihle Motha, "You have this person's life in your hands"
15/Dec/2010
SOUTH AFRICA: Nurses step into ART breach
14/Dec/2010
SWAZILAND: Army slowly winning the HIV/AIDS battle
09/Dec/2010
HEALTH: WHO approves new rapid TB test
02/Dec/2010
KENYA: Walking 26km for a condom
 Most Read 
SRI LANKA: Princey Mangalika: "My neighbours burned my house because they thought I had HIV"
SOUTH AFRICA: Nurses step into ART breach
SOUTH AFRICA: Sihle Motha, "You have this person's life in your hands"
HIV/AIDS: IRIN/PlusNews weekly news and analysis round-up Issue 516 for 17 December 2010
Back | Home page

Services:  Africa | Asia | Middle East | Film & TV | Photo | Radio | Live news map | E-mail subscription
Feedback · IRIN Terms & Conditions · Really Simple Syndication News Feeds · About PlusNews · Jobs · Donors

Copyright © IRIN 2010
This material comes to you via IRIN, the humanitarian news and analysis service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the United Nations or its Member States. Republication is subject to terms and conditions as set out in the IRIN copyright page.