G8 leaders get pressure on responding to AIDS

By Chhay Sophal

At the end of the 17th International AIDS Conference on 3-8 August in Mexico City, G8 industrialised nations are urged to more actively commit to responding to AIDS, the world silent killer.

Michel Kazatchkine, the Executive Director of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, said at the close of the six-day conference that the world “should be deeply concerned that with less than two years to go before our deadline for universal access, the G8 has committed little more than a third of the resources that it has promised to deliver by 2010."

In his closing session remarks, Dr. Julio Montaner, Director of the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS in Vancouver, Canada, and the new President of the International AIDS Society, said though there is “tremendous commitment” on the part of the United States, which has contributed $48 billions towards responding to HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, such responsibility cannot lie solely on the Americans’ shoulders. “The world must follow their example. Ultimately, if George W Bush got it, the rest of the G8 leaders should get it!” he said. Dr. Montaner also called upon the Canadian Prime Minister Hon. Stephen Harper to join the rest of the G8 leaders “to match President Bush’s contribution, now! …We must keep the pressure on the G8 leaders to follow up on their commitment to achieve universal access to prevention, care and treatment by 2010.”

Addressing the opening session of the conference on 3 August, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that more funding is needed in the next decades to fight against AIDS. “As the fight against AIDS nears the end of its third decade, we are still facing a huge shortfall in resources. The responses to HIV and AIDS require long-term and sustained financing,” he said. “As more people go on treatment and live longer, budgets will have to increase considerably over the next few decades. In the most affected countries, donors will have to provide the majority of the funding.” Mr. Ban also promised that he would work to “mobilize funding and to ensure that AIDS will remains a system-wide priority for the United Nations. You can count on me.”

In 2005, the G8 nations set a goal of providing HIV treatment to all who needed it by 2010. The G8 nations comprise Germany, Canada, the United States, France, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and Russia.