PRESS BRIEFING BY UNAIDS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

PRESS BRIEFING BY UNAIDS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Reports published by the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) were “truly a wake-up call” to the world, UNAIDS Executive Director Peter Piot said during a press briefing at Headquarters today.

Mr. Piot, addressing correspondents as the General Assembly holds a high-level follow-up meeting to its 2001 special session on HIV/AIDS, said the reports were a report card on the progress made on the commitments made two years ago.  “Bluntly, unless we significantly increase our financial and political commitments, we will not meet a set of indicators on reducing HIV among young people and infants and implementing care programmes”, he said.

According to surveys from 103 countries, 99 per cent of pregnant women in heavily affected countries, with the exception of Botswana, still had no access to services that would reduce mother-to-child transmission, he said. 

Ninety-nine per cent of HIV-infected people in sub-Saharan Africa had no access to needed drugs and treatment, and just 40 per cent of the heavily affected countries had policies in place for AIDS orphans.

However, there had been clear progress -- there had been a substantial increase, both in donor countries and heavily affected countries, in funding available to fight HIV.  The Global Fund on AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria was now fully established and was offering countries rapid access to available funding.  Some 80 per cent of all countries had invested in HIV education. However, the $10 billion that poor, low- and middle-income countries needed yearly for stopping the epidemic had barely reached the halfway point.

Mr. Piot called on all countries to:  double national and international funding by 2005 and triple it by 2007; implement basic HIV prevention programmes and guarantee access to programmes for vulnerable groups, particularly women and girls; and intensify efforts to ensure that 3 million people get access to HIV drugs by 2005.  The extraordinary global movement to expand treatment access had been one of the most positive developments, he said.  That same passion and commitment was now needed for prevention.  The needs were urgent and clear; the road map was there.  An unprecedented opportunity now existed in the history of the HIV epidemic -- there was strong political commitment, empirical evidence that success was possible and increasing funding.

Answering correspondents’ questions, he said that, in order to have effective prevention programmes and treatment for about 3 million people and take care of orphans, the world needed about $10 billion.  This year, an estimated $4.7 billion would be spent.  Seven years ago, when UNAIDS started its work, that amount was only $200 million.  The money was coming from governments of developing countries, the donor community, the Global Fund and the World Bank.  There would be incremental progress in funding, but that would not happen spontaneously.  Public opinion in wealthy countries was key.  Seen in the perspective of a global economy, $10 billion was “peanuts”.

He said a lack of capacity in Africa to absorb donor money was a concern, however.  Not all HIV-infected people would have access overnight, noting he knew of no city in Africa, let along rural areas, where existing capacity in treatment was fully exploited.  Many heavily indebted countries were paying more to debt-servicing than on health and education combined.  The debt-initiative was, therefore, very important, as money not spent on debt could be spend on HIV, as was happening in Cameroon.  

Asked about national laws against homosexuality, Mr. Piot said it was clear that those laws did not help prevention, as they drove people at risk, such as homosexuals and sex workers, underground.  However, public health programmes were often doing one thing, where the law said something else. Continuing dialogue and working with community groups was key.  The UNAIDS had to stick to the evidence and science.

Answering a question about leadership, he noted that at today’s General Assembly meeting, African and Caribbean countries were well represented, while there were no high-level participants from Asian and Middle Eastern countries. He said any leader of a heavily-affected country that was not including AIDS as a top priority was negligent and not acting in the interest of the nation. Although he understood that there were many competing priorities for developing countries –- such as education, poverty and job creation –- AIDS was a unique development challenge, as it killed people in their most productive years.  Also, as there was a stigma on AIDS, as a sex-related disease, leaders had to display courage to deal with the problem.

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