PRESS CONFERENCE TO RELEASE REPORT ON ATTITUDES OF DEVELOPED-WORLD POPULATIONS

TOWARDS THOSE AFFECTED BY HIV/AIDS GLOBALLY

 

Public knowledge of HIV/AIDS was crucial to combating the epidemic, and the better it was understood, the easier it would be for policymakers to develop programmes to combat it, Bunmi Makinwa, Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) in New York, said this morning at a Headquarters press conference sponsored by the Permanent Mission of Denmark to the United Nations.

“I think the contribution from World Vision and IPSOS provides the kind of insight that helps us to understand the epidemic in a way that makes the efforts required to be more effective,” Mr. Makinwa said as he helped launch Global AIDS Attitudes Survey, a report produced by the humanitarian non-governmental organization World Vision with Ipsos Public Affairs, a polling and market research firm.  The survey describes attitudes in Canada, France, Germany Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Accompanying Mr. Makinwa were Carsten Staur, Permanent Representative of Denmark; Richard Stearns, President of World Vision United States; and Sam McGuire, Senior Vice-President of Ipsos Public Affairs.  Mr. Stearns said that, after 25 years and tens of millions of deaths, one-third of adults in those countries admitted they knew little or nothing about the global epidemic, and one-fourth believed problems associated with AIDS were “greatly exaggerated”.  On the positive side, 80 per cent maintained that their Governments should do more to help children orphaned by the disease, and 44 per cent were willing to pay more in taxes to help fund treatment, research and care.

He said it was “astounding” that 90 per cent of respondents believed there was a moral obligation to respond to the AIDS crisis and that 64 per cent said they would give to a charitable cause that helped children effected by AIDS.  According to the survey, the greatest concern about the epidemic’s effects was found in Canada and the lowest in Japan.  France, Germany, the United States, Italy and the United Kingdom were in the middle, in that order.

Although the survey did not plumb the reasons for the difference in levels of concern, the key was putting a face to the crisis, he said, pointing out that he had not felt strongly about it until nine years ago, when he had first visited a Ugandan village whose population had been decimated by the disease and met children orphaned by it.

“Moussa, Bintu, Ghosa, Monique…” he read, listing the names of children around the world who had lost their parents.  Some 6,000 children lost a parent every day, and in order to help put faces to that tragedy, World Vision would host a global vigil in which 6,000 names would be read successively, in 17 cities progressing westward around the world.  The vigil would begin today and end tomorrow, the eve of World AIDS Day.  “We must do more to make HIV/AIDS real to the publics that we serve.”  That was how worldwide action against the epidemic would be spurred.

Asked about the downward adjustment of statistics on the number of people infected worldwide, Mr. Makinwa said the figures had been refined because of new statistical methodologies.  While it was good news that fewer people were infected than previously thought, even 33 million infected was still “a daunting challenge facing the human race”.

As Mr. McGuire explained that the results of the survey were consistent with others of its kind, a correspondent asked how the study would be used.

Mr. Stearns replied that the first thing was to get the data out.  The large number of people wanting their Governments to do more to reverse the epidemic provided political cover for politicians to act.  That was particularly true in the United States, where 50 per cent of those surveyed had said they would want more action even if it meant their taxes going up -– a highly unusual polling result.  Repeating the survey periodically would provide insights into how attitudes changed over time, he added.

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