PRESS BRIEFING ON HIV/AIDS

Press Briefing

PRESS BRIEFING ON HIV/AIDS

At a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon, the Executive Director of the joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), Peter Piot, said a major new goal concerning HIV/AIDS was expected to be added to the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (Cairo, 1994) during the twenty-first special session of the General Assembly, which has been convened for a five-year review of implementation.

The HIV/AIDS epidemic was the major new factor in the global environment since adoption of the Programme of Action in Cairo, Mr. Piot continued. In sub-Saharan Africa today, it was the leading cause of death, killing over 2.5 million people last year alone. During the debate of the special session, it had become clear that HIV/AIDS had become a major issue for development.

Three facts in particular about AIDS were relevant to goals set by the Cairo Conference, the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing and the 1995 World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen, Mr. Piot added. The major impact of AIDS was on life expectancy, with a decline of about 10 to 20 years in the worst affected countries. In other words, decades of development had been wiped out by the epidemic, because it affected young adults in the most productive years of their lives.

The second major impact of AIDS was on education, he continued. Studies had shown that where the head of the household was affected by AIDS, children dropped out of school or were taken out, particularly the girls. Further, AIDS killed professionals, just as it did the poor. In Côte d'Ivoir, for example, which was not the worst affected in Africa, every day a teacher died of AIDS. And finally, AIDS impacted on productivity. Heads of households affected by AIDS dropped 30 to 50 per cent in terms of production.

"AIDS has really put a very dark shadow over all the goals we have set", Mr. Piot stated, adding that even if there was awareness at the time of the Cairo Conference about AIDS, no one had internalized the implications nor foreseen what a major catastrophe it would be. The goal to be added to the Cairo Programme focused on reducing the rate of infections among young people. By the year 2005, the goal was to reduce the infection rate by 25 per cent in the most affected countries. The goals, detailed in the document itself, were ambitious, but achievable. Experience with countries that had been successful with the programme, such as Senegal, Uganda and Thailand, had shown that a decrease of 25 to 40 per cent of new infections of HIV among young people was feasible.

Meeting that kind of goal would require major efforts, Mr. Piot continued. It would require tough political decisions, of the kind being discussed at the special session, relating to adolescent health and sex. It

HIV/AIDS Press Briefing - 2 - 2 July 1999

would also require an increase in resources. A study conducted by UNAIDS in the developing countries on resources available for HIV prevention showed that for sub-Saharan Africa, outside South Africa, only $165 million was spent in 1997, and that included $50 million from domestic money from governments and $150 million from the international community in the form of funds from banks and bilateral development agencies. "There is no way that one can win this battle with that kind of budget", he said. "It is therefore gratifying that the new goal includes an indication of the resources needed, along with a call for resources to fight the epidemic."

In response to a question on reported unethical practices with regard to the testing and treatment of HIV/AIDS, Mr. Piot said that within the next weeks, UNAIDS would issue guidelines for the ethical conduct of clinical trials, including vaccine trials, and also a set of ethical guidelines for dealing with the epidemic. HIV/AIDS was a new epidemic and the technical details for trials were not always standardized. UNAIDS was also supporting countries in establishing ethical review committees, because the capacity to review research proposals was not always present.

HIV/AIDS was not a manufactured virus and its spread was not deliberate. It had sprung up in the 1970s and had been discovered in the United States during the 1980s. The method of viral spread was very well known: sex, transmission from mother to child; and through blood contact, either transfusions or injecting equipment. There was no sound scientific evidence to suggest any wilful spread of the virus, thankfully, despite what some books have been implying.

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