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UN: $5 Billion Needed to Curb AIDS Spread in Asia-Pacific Region
Ron Corben
Bangkok
13 Jul 2004, 11:07 UTC

United Nations officials have told an AIDS conference in Bangkok that the Asia-Pacific region needs at least $5 billion to curb the increase of the disease in the region.

The United Nations has reported that the fastest rise in new AIDS infections in 2003 was in the Asia-Pacific region, with countries such as India, China, and Indonesia the most vulnerable to future infections.

Kathleen Cravero, deputy executive director of UNAIDS, said the Asia Pacific needs at least five billion dollars to combat the rise of AIDS.

All aspects of the disease, which has killed 20 million people and infected almost 40 million more since first being diagnosed in the early 1980s, have come in for debate at the conference. There was even disagreement on the way the epidemic should be portrayed.

Actor Richard Gere, speaking in a panel discussion, said AIDS is now the world's most pressing problem.

"There's no question that there is a great terrorist on this planet right now. And it's not Osama bin Laden," he said. "AIDS is the biggest problem on this planet right now."

Mr. Gere was putting the matter into a political context, criticizing the heavy spending on the Iraq war and saying the to tens of billions of dollars spent there could have helped eradicate AIDS instead.

But UNAIDS President Peter Piot called for the "rebranding" of AIDS, to present the fight against the pandemic in a more positive light.

"I believe that we should move from doom and gloom, from only bad news to the fact that this is a problem with a solution," said Mr. Piot. "This is an issue that we should turn into a positive movement that will shape the future of the world."

Speakers at the conference kept the pressure on richer countries to provide access to AIDS drugs.

French President Jacques Chirac, in a statement read at the conference, said rich countries should not place obstacles in the way of developing countries that want to produce generic forms of proven AIDS medications. The United States has been the target of criticism from developing states because of its efforts to enforce intellectual property rights on drugs developed by U.S. pharmaceutical companies.

One of the more disturbing statistics presented was the growing number of orphans that AIDS is creating. A UN report released Tuesday estimated that 18 million children worldwide will have lost one parent to AIDS by 2010. Carol Bellamy, executive director of the United Nations Children's Emergency Fund, characterized this trend as a "tidal wave."

More than 17,000 delegates from more than 150 countries are attending the AIDS conference, which is due to end Friday.