The 17th International AIDS Conference Comes to an End

The 17^th International AIDS Conference ended Friday, August 8, in Mexico City. It was determined that access to preventative measures and full-scope treatment must be increased. The next conference is scheduled for 2010 in Vienna. Participants hope that further progress will have been made by then.

A key discussion among conference attendees was the fact that many third world countries are essentially ignoring the HIV/AIDS crisis. They are unwilling to appropriate funds towards HIV in the fear that other diseases will become neglected. Pedro Cahn, the current President of the International AIDS Society, commented, "I hope that this conference is starting to put the last nail in the coffin of this absurd debate between funding for AIDS against health care systems." He also noted that overall public well-being has been shown to improve dramatically when an AIDS agenda is utilized.

Fortunately, the UN recently reported an overall decrease in global HIV infections. Nonetheless, there are numerous third world regions where AIDS remains very rampant, wreaking many fatalities. Despite the difficulties they face, Pedro is intent to keep pursuing a global effort to prevent and provide therapy for HIV. According to him, "Although difficult, it is very much worth it to help prevent the increased spread of AIDs."

"If we would be able to duplicate the number of patients on treatment or if we would be able to half the number of new infections, we still would not be there. So we understand that rolling out the anti-viral therapy is a means also to serve as a prevention tool, because if you lower the median variable load of the population level probably you would get less infection," he said.

Drugs to help keep AIDS-infected individuals living healthy were developed nearly a decade ago. They have been proven to work. The problem is that although they are used heavily in well-developed countries such as the US, they are barely being distributed amongst poor countries. According to Health Central, of the millions infected throughout Asia, only a purported three million have received any treatment for HIV. That is less than 15% of the total # of infected Asians.

The primary problem with the medications is their high cost. Many third world countries are unwilling to provide financial funding to those unable to afford these medications. The UN has called for free worldwide HIV medication by 2010. Sadly, it is very unlikely to happen.

Kamil Zaheer. "Less than 1 in 5 Asians in need get AIDS drugs." Health Central.