{"id":6765,"date":"2002-09-11T22:28:12","date_gmt":"2002-09-11T21:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/moomango.co.uk\/htb\/?p=6765"},"modified":"2014-06-04T09:56:55","modified_gmt":"2014-06-04T09:56:55","slug":"peter-piot-sets-out-the-global-political-agenda-in-the-fight-against-hivaids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/6765","title":{"rendered":"Peter Piot sets out the global political agenda in the fight against HIV\/AIDS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Graham McKerrow, HIV i-Base<\/strong><\/p>\n

AIDS has entered a new era as a major issue on the global political stage, according to Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS, who set out the immediate political agenda when he spoke to thousands of delegates at the opening ceremony in Barcelona\u2019s huge Palau St Jordi.<\/strong><\/p>\n

He said it was now important to mobilise the political commitment, to scale up the prevention and treatment work, eliminate stigma, develop a vaccine and find $10 billion a year to fight the virus.<\/p>\n

Piot told his audience it now had to fight AIDS on the political stage \u201cwhere struggles over power and resources are fought\u201d. He said: \u201cGovernments promised leadership – all of them \u2013 at the UN General Assembly Special Session on AIDS [UNGASS] last year and in innumerable summits. The pharmaceutical industry must keep its promise to make AIDS drugs available to developing countries at affordable prices, and scientists to keep the promise to work where the real needs are, not just where the money and glory lie.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said 30 presidents and deputy presidents have made AIDS a priority by taking personal command of their national responses to the health crisis. He said the same was true of the presidents and prime ministers attending the conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir response signals a new era: the era of AIDS as a global political issue,\u201d said Piot.<\/p>\n

He addressed the politicians directly: \u201cWorld leaders take note: success is possible. Prevention efforts in a growing number of developing countries clearly demonstrate that significant declines in HIV rates are possible. Antiretroviral treatment has slashed mortality in high income countries. Brazil has shown it can be done elsewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Piot asked why only 30,000 Africans were receiving antiretroviral therapy \u201cwhen a hundred times that number need it\u201d and why the world has failed to stop the dramatic expansion of HIV. The answer, he said, was about \u201cpower and priorities\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cTreatment is technically feasible in every part of the world. Even the lack of infrastructure is not an excuse \u2013 I don\u2019t know a single place in the world where the real reason AIDS treatment is unavailable is that the health infrastructure has exhausted its capacity to deliver it. It\u2019s not knowledge that\u2019s the barrier, it\u2019s the political will.\u201d<\/p>\n

And he went on: \u201cTen billion dollars annually is all it will take for a minimum credible response to the epidemic. It is three times more than is available today. Every funder \u2013 governments, business, citizens and the new Global Fund need to get behind this target and start raising their share.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe world stood by while AIDS overwhelmed sub-Saharan Africa. Never again. We cannot stand by as passive observers while other continents repeat history, and we must not fail Africa now, in her attempts to turn back the epidemic\u2019s devastation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Piot said the first \u201cdelivery date\u201d for promises made in the UNGASS Declaration of Commitment is 2003. He said: \u201cWhen this Conference gathers again in Bangkok [in July 2004] we will know who has delivered on the first UNGASS promises, due to be achieved in 2003.\u201d He warned: \u201cBangkok will be a time of accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Piot said that fighting HIV in the future had to draw on the lessons of how it has been fought in the past: \u201cWhenever and wherever we\u2019ve succeeded against AIDS, it has been by challenging power and turning conventional wisdom on its head. Gay men and injecting drug users forced their way to the decision-making table. We have done it before, and now we must do it again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Graham McKerrow, HIV i-Base AIDS has entered a new era as a major issue on the global political stage, according to Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS, who set out the immediate political agenda when he spoke to thousands of …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conference-reports","category-treatment-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6765\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/i-base.info\/htb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}