Around the globe, leaders, activists
and victims used World AIDS
Day to send the message that far stronger action is needed
in the battle against the disease that kills millions
of people every year.
The United Nation's special envoy for AIDS in Africa
proposed big business dedicate a portion of profits to
the fight, French President Jacques
Chirac suggested schools install condom vending
machines and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called
on people to talk openly about safe sex.
The number of people living with
HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, has reached its
highest level with an estimated 40.3 million people,
UNAIDS Executive
Director Peter Piot said. Nearly half of them are women.
"We must do far, far more," U.N. Secretary-General
Kofi Annan said. "It is time to recognize that
although our response so far has succeeded in some of
the particulars, it has yet to match the epidemic in scale."
Others, including U.S. President
George W. Bush, noted what progress had been made.
Speaking in Washington, he said U.S. efforts were helping
400,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa get treatment.
With just over 10 percent of the world's population,
sub-Saharan Africa is home to more than 60 percent of
all people infected with HIV. Africa saw about 3.2 million
of the almost 5 million new infections recorded in 2005.
"These countries, and many others, are fighting for the
lives of their citizens, and America is now their strongest
partner in that fight," he said. The 400,000 getting treatment,
he said, was up from 50,000 two years ago.
However, critics including senior U.N. officials say
Bush's emphasis on abstinence-only programs has hobbled
efforts by playing down the role of condoms.
Taking up the cause of promoting condom use to prevent
infection with the HIV virus that causes AIDS, officials
in Buenos Aires covered the city's most famous landmark,
the obelisk, with a giant pink condom.
"It seemed like we could have the biggest impact by putting
a condom on the most important symbol of the city," said
Sandra Castillo, an organizer of the campaign.
AIDS killed 66,000 Latin Americans in the past year,
according to a U.N. report.
From Vatican City, Pope
Benedict said programs based on promoting abstinence
and marital fidelity were seeing success, saying "statistics
taken in several regions of Africa confirm the results
of policies based on continence, the promotion of faithfulness
in marriage and the importance of family life."
But the pope did not specify the regions or the statistics,
and he avoided a specific mention of the Roman Catholic
Church's controversial ban on condoms.
"The international response to HIV and AIDS was woefully
slow. This is one of the scars on the conscience of our
generation," said U.N. General Assembly President Jan
Eliasson in remarks prepared for a ceremony in New York.
"We cannot turn back the clock. But we must ensure that,
when historians look at the way the world responded to
HIV and AIDS, they see that 2006 was the year when the
international community finally stepped up to the mark,"
he said.
"This vast human tragedy is all the more unacceptable
because it could have been avoided."
AIDS FUND IN "TERRIBLE TROUBLE"
In New York, activists stood by City Hall and solemnly
read the names of deceased AIDS victims aloud. The Empire
State Building, typically lit in bright holiday hues of
red and green at this time of year, was set to go dark
for 15 minutes to mark World AIDS Day.
Stephen Lewis, the U.N. special envoy for AIDS in Africa,
called upon on major corporations to contribute 0.7 percent
of pretax profits to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS.
The fund "is in terrible trouble" after increases promised
by the Group of 8 industrialized nations in July failed
to materialize, he said.
"We need a new source of dollars," he said in a statement.
"That source must be the private sector."
The United Nations has
long called on wealthy nations to donate 0.7 percent of
gross domestic product for development aid every year.
African AIDS patients criticized politicians for failing
to take adequate measures.
"Money earmarked for HIV/AIDS has gone into everything
else but AIDS," said Meris Kafusi, a 64-year-old AIDS
patient in Tanzania who only recently began receiving
life-prolonging antiretroviral drugs that are widespread
in the West.
"Organizations that say they are dealing with AIDS are
always in seminars or workshops. They should be buying
food for widows and orphans ... Is this fair?"
Lobby group Africa Action targeted pharmaceutical companies.
"The prices charged by pharmaceutical companies, and
the policies pursued by rich countries at their behest,
continue to keep life-saving treatment out of reach for
those most affected by HIV/AIDS," said Salih Booker, Africa
Action's executive director.
TALKING ABOUT SAFE SEX
Politicians say taboos need to be broken to tackle AIDS.
In India, which says it has 5.13 million people with
HIV/AIDS, the second largest number after South Africa,
Singh called on people to shed the inhibitions that keep
them from talking about sex.
"This, quite obviously, has to change if we are to succeed
in creating awareness of the hazards of unsafe sexual
practices," he said.
