AIDS leaders
around the world are responding to new United Nations data
showing a record number of HIV infections in 2005 by calling
for drug companies to lower antiretroviral medication
prices and for governments around the world to step up
funding of HIV prevention and treatment programs. The
report, released Monday and titled "AIDS Epidemic
Update: December 2005," shows that there were 5
million new HIV infections worldwide this year, nearly
3.1 million AIDS deaths, and an estimated 40.3 million
people around the world living with HIV.
Noting that the
report shows that some countries that have invested
heavily in HIV prevention programs decreased their HIV
prevalence during the past five years, including
Kenya, Zimbabwe, and some Caribbean countries, AIDS
leaders are calling for stepped-up prevention efforts in
every nation. "This [report] is an affirmation that global
investments and commitment can have an impact on the
devastation of this disease," Richard Feachem,
executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS,
Tuberculosis, and Malaria, said in a statement. "We must
now accelerate the scale-up of prevention, testing, and
treatment to keep pace with the growing epidemic."
Mark Stirling,
the director of AIDS programs for Eastern and Southern
Africa for the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS,
says prevention programs need to be scaled up in every
nation, including promotion of condom use, safe blood
use, mother-to-child prevention efforts, needle
exchanges, and widespread HIV antibody testing, The
Boston Globe reports.
Jim Yong Kim, the
World Health Organization's AIDS director, is calling
for pharmaceutical companies around the world to work
together to jointly produce anti-HIV medications at
low prices, even if it means large companies allowing
generic firms to make cheap versions of their
medications. "I don't see another way to get the
prices to the levels needed so that the Group of Eight
[industrialized nations] can meet its aspirations,"
Kim told the Financial Times. "Their cost for
the cheapest second-line HIV drug is $1,500, while I
have Chinese companies who tell me they can do it for
$150 but won't because they don't want to violate patents."
(Advocate.com)