Statement: World AIDS Day 2003
On this World AIDS Day, we have reason to hope that the end of this pandemic draws nearer, even as we learn new facts about the horrific scale of deaths associated with it.
The United Nations estimates that 5 million people in the world will be infected with HIV this year, and 3 million will die from AIDS; both numbers are higher than ever. While Africa has the highest number of people with AIDS, there is reason to be concerned about the number of people who may become infected in Asia, the Caribbean and the nations of the former Soviet Union.
The impact of AIDS extends far beyond the toll in human misery, as wrenching as that is. AIDS sends shock waves through the economies of entire nations and regions, and wreaks havoc with the stability of communities and governments. Ultimately, AIDS becomes a security threat, capable of toppling democracies and leaving fertile ground for the proliferation of chaos and terrorism.
Where is the hope in this tale of global woe? It lies in the fervent efforts of individuals, religious groups, non-governmental organizations, some government leaders and the United Nations to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS and provide care and treatment for its victims.
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has committed more than $2 billion to combat these infectious diseases in 121 nations. And the World Health Organization (WHO) has set a goal of delivering life-saving antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) to three million people by the end of 2005. Today only 300,000 people are getting treatment in the developing world, with over six million in desperate need. The WHO goal is ambitious, but we must all support efforts to reach that target, and exceed it in subsequent years. Treatment not only helps in alleviating tremendous misery, it can bolster prevention measures, which ultimately rely on the willingness of people to be tested for HIV. When there is hope of receiving medicine that can extend people's lives, there is every incentive to be tested.
My Foundation is a partner in WHO's “3 by 5” plan, and is at work with other organizations and governments to bring treatment to people and places where there is virtually none now. This fall, I reached agreement with five generic manufacturers of ARVs to cut their prices to $139 per person per year, less than half the cost paid for the vast majority of people in the developing world, thus making the provision of medicine more affordable and, therefore, more widely available.
We are also helping more than a dozen nations in the Caribbean and four in Africa set up nationwide treatment programs, incorporating modern health care and sound business practices into delivery systems that will help ensure that people have safe and reliable access to testing, treatment and care regimens.
One of the nations in which we are working is South Africa, where, under the leadership of President Thabo Mbeki, the government has just given approval to a program which will bring ARVs to more than a million people with AIDS over the next five years. With so many people living with AIDS, South Africa can set the stage for a global turning of the tide against the disease if it succeeds with this aggressive treatment initiative.
I just completed a trip around the world during which I focused on the importance of global cooperation in the fight against AIDS. In Norway, the government committed up to $25 million to help our work in Africa – joining Canada, Ireland and Sweden in promising resources that will help governments implement their treatment plans.
In India, I met with some of the people making the reduced-price ARVs which we expect to deliver to millions in Africa and the Caribbean in the coming months and years, and I spoke with the Indian Prime Minister about his government's plans to begin a treatment program in that vast land, where close to five million people are believed to be infected with HIV.
In China, I participated in an historic AIDS summit, organized by Dr. David Ho and the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center, together with Tsinghuia University in Beijing. It was the first time that Chinese government officials participated in such a large scale gathering to discuss AIDS, symbolizing a desire by China's leaders to get a handle on the disease in a country where its spread could have incredibly drastic consequences.
China's recent experience with SARS illustrated how vital it is for the nations, organizations and peoples of the world to work cooperatively to confront common crises. AIDS respects no divides of geography, ideology, religion, ethnicity or race. We all have something to lose if we act only in isolation, or do not act at all. We all have much to gain by sharing information, resources and a moral imperative to do the right thing.
Back in the 14th Century, when the Black Plague killed one-third of Europe, people did not know what caused it, how it was spread, or how to treat it. They could hide behind their ignorance while millions died.
We do not have that excuse. We know what AIDS is, how it is spread, and how to treat people and extend their lives. It is our duty as children of the same God and citizens of the same planet to pool our energies and banish the scourge of AIDS from the headlines of our newspapers to the chapters of our history books once and for all.
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