A new United Nations report makes all too clear that the global fight against AIDS is a sorrowful one, with millions of victims last year alone. While the number of new infections worldwide has slowed, the epidemic continues to exact an incredible toll.
More than 2.8 million people died last year, and 4.1 million were infected. Altogether, 25 million have died since AIDS was first identified in 1981. Those are grim statistics, but a quarter of a million people are alive today because of a worldwide effort just since 2003 to prevent and treat the disease.
Education and condom-use campaigns must continue, in addition to improved programs of treatment and care of infected people. First Lady Laura Bush plans to call for education programs to promote the pro-chastity message in a speech today before the U.N. AIDS conference in New York. The conference comes a week before the 25th anniversary of the discovery of the deadly disease.
Abstinence is an invaluable sentiment, and it is believed that in some sub-Saharan countries the percentage under age 15 having intercourse has declined thanks to abstinence messages. But AIDS infections are on the rise again in parts of Africa where the population would benefit if the first lady were to get behind other prevention efforts, including the campaign to distribute condoms, which are a major reason for inroads against the disease. Less than one in five people at risk of HIV infection has access to basic prevention tools, including condoms.
Delegates to the U.N. conference will try to craft a consensus that charts a course for universal access to prevention and treatment by 2010. It is a critical goal that we hope can be achieved without politics rearing its ugly head. We hope the U.S., the largest single donor to global AIDS programs, doesn’t divert attention from those goals by insisting on not mentioning gay people, prostitutes and intravenous-drug users at high risk of becoming infected. “If we are here to try and end the epidemic and fight the epidemic, we will not succeed by putting our heads in the sand and pretending these people do not exist or do not need help,” U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan told reporters.
While the spread of AIDS has slowed overall, giving reason for hope and optimism, the epidemic has yet to be reversed. Governments and health activists must not let up on efforts to combat the deadly virus that causes AIDS and to deliver treatment to all those who need it.
