AIDS 2010 Conference opens with protests, fears, and new plans |
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Seattle Gay News
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posted Friday, July 23, 2010 - Volume 38 Issue 30 AIDS 2010 Conference opens with protests, fears, and new plansby Mike Andrew - SGN Staff Writer The AIDS 2010 Conference opened July 19 in Vienna with very little self-congratulation and a lot of self-examination. Some 20,000 international AIDS activists, scientists, and people living with HIV/AIDS gathered in the Messe Wien convention center in downtown Vienna. ACT UP Paris protesters carrying "Broken Promises Kill" signs disrupted a pre-conference working meeting with a die-in. Speakers at the opening session of the conference echoed some of ACT UP's concerns. "We are at a pivotal moment in the global response to AIDS and there is both a moral and a public health imperative that we continue in the right direction, especially as HIV treatment guidelines are expanded to reach people earlier in the course of their disease and our understanding that providing antiretroviral treatment also prevents new transmissions continues to grow," said Dr. Julio Montaner. "Increased financial commitments must be matched with a drive for the most efficient use of available resources." Montaner is the AIDS 2010 chair, president of the International AIDS Society (IAS), and director of the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS in Vancouver, Canada. He went on to say that some governments with high HIV infection rates were "irresponsible to the point of criminal negligence." Montaner denounced politicians for failing to deliver on their promises, saying that only a third of the 15 million people who need life-saving AIDS drugs currently get them. "Today we have treatments that work, we have shown that this can be done. ... What we need now is the political will to go the extra mile to deliver on universal access," he said. "We have a serious problem with the political leadership globally and we have to fix it." U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said progress in the worldwide fight against AIDS could be jeopardized if governments trimmed budgets. "Some governments are cutting back on their response to AIDS. This should be a cause for great concern to us all," he told the conference via videolink from New York. Michel Kazatchkine, head of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria said it needed up to $20 billion in the next three years to sustain progress. "I am hugely afraid. I am very concerned. Because of the [global financial] crisis ... because of the competing priorities," he told reporters at the Vienna conference. "I hear of many governments cutting official development aid, but I hear other governments saying that despite cuts in other areas, foreign assistance will remain - and I also hear other governments with good news. It is very up and down," he said. The Global Fund supports some 2.5 million people on treatment, provides treatment for almost 800,000 HIV-positive women to prevent vertical transmission, and estimates it has saved 4.9 million lives. As Kazatchkine spoke, hundreds of protesters marched through the conference center demanding that rich nations deliver on their promise that all people in need of AIDS drugs should get them. "The replenishment [of the Global Fund] is the moment at which we will know whether or not world leaders intend to fulfill the promise they made to universal access," said Dr. Brigitte Schmied, AIDS 2010 local co-chair and president of the Austrian AIDS Society. "The rich scientific findings and on-the-ground experiences presented at AIDS 2010 should be all the evidence that leaders of all nations need to fully commit to doing their part," she added. The next Global Fund replenishment meeting will be October 5 in New York, and will cover funding for the years 2011 to 2013. Former U.S. President Bill Clinton also addressed the conference, calling on AIDS organizations to try to do more with less funding. "I think in too many countries too much money goes to pay for too many people to go to too many meetings, get on too many airplanes," Clinton said, adding that too much is spent on studies and reports that sit on shelves. "Keep in mind that every dollar we waste today puts a life at risk," he said. "It is easy to rail at a government and say why doesn't the government give us more money if they're giving somebody else money," Clinton continued. "But the government gets its money in most of these countries from taxpayers who have lower incomes today than they did two years ago." In order to have the "moral standing" to ask for more funding, organizations should make governments believe that "we're doing our job faster, better and cheaper," Clinton concluded. Many AIDS 2010 delegates arrived in Vienna a week early to begin work. Over 300 young people attended the four-day Youth Pre-Conference to network and gain skills in research, advocacy and communications. The BE HEARD! Pre-Conference organized by the Global Forum on Men Who Have Sex with Men (MSMGF) attracted over 500 participants. At the meeting, public health leaders called for an end to the human rights abuses against MSM that contribute to HIV vulnerability. Other pre-meetings focused on strengthening health systems, eradicating HIV reservoirs and children's issues, including the latest models of family-centered care and services for children affected by HIV and AIDS. Microsoft founder Bill Gates also addressed a plenary session of the conference. |
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