World AIDS conference opens with call for universal treatment access

Jul 18, 2010, 9:16 GMT

Vienna - As the 18th International AIDS Conference was set to open Sunday in Austria, activists demanded adequate funding for HIV/AIDS treatment to make possible the universal access to care pledged by world leaders.

Activists say that governments are backtracking from funding for the treatment, both domestically and internationally.

'It seems that the political leadership is losing interest,' said Julio Montaner, president of the International AIDS Society (IAS), the conference organizer.

Michel Sidibe, the head of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), said universal access was 'a fight for human justice.'

He urged a 'prevention revolution' that would lead to development of a single pill for treatment of people infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Some 25,000 activists, scientists and government officials are expected to attend the six-day conference in Vienna. Speakers include former US president Bill Clinton and Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates.

The biennial conference was last held in Mexico City in 2008.

Saturday, before the conference was set to open, celebrities gathered for Vienna's annual AIDS dinner and ball. Clinton was present, along with Hollywood actress Whoopi Goldberg, singer Patti Labelle and German tennis legend Boris Becker.

This year's conference aims to focus attention on the importance of human rights in the fight against HIV and AIDS, as well as the dire situation in some parts of Eastern Europe and Central Asia, where the spread of HIV has been particularly rapid.

The commitment by rich countries to adequately fund AIDS treatment programs in the developing world is expected to be a major bone of contention.

UN Millennium Development Goals set 2010 as the target for universal treatment for HIV/AIDS by everyone who needs it, but that deadline has not been met.

Some 4.7 million people in the world received HIV treatment at the end of 2008, only 42 per cent of those who needed it, according to UNAIDS.

Worldwide, there were some 33.4 million people living with HIV in 2008. Sub-Saharan Africa, home to 67 per cent of all people with the AIDS virus, is the most affected region.

In Europe, Ukraine has the highest rate of HIV infection, at 1.6 per cent.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, set up in 2001 with the help of the Group of Eight (G8) industrial nations, provides a quarter of all international financing for AIDS treatment and prevention.

So far the Global Fund has disbursed over 11.2 billion dollars to finance treatment and prevention programs. It has received 21.9 billion dollars in contributions and pledges, most from the United States.

Although new pledges are set to be announced only in October, activists say governments are already retreating from making the fiscal appropriations necessary to increase their contributions or to keep them steady.

'We will not let the G8 turn us down,' Montaner said.