Durban - The world has become more complacent in the battle to eliminate the scourge of HIV/Aids and a leading United Nations official told a press conference at the 21st World Aids Conference in Durban that he was “scared”.
Michel Sidibé, the executive director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) said that 13 out of 14 major donor countries had cut their funding to battle the disease.
“I am scared because we are back in Durban. The risk is that we will have a rebound in this epidemic.”
Sidibe who was speaking at the opening press conference, said the world needed a strong health care system to ensure that the battle against the disease was won.
“I am scared because I am not seeing a decline in new infections.”
He pointed out that globally the rate of infection had remained unchanged for the past five years.
“If we stop now, we will see a resurgence in the epidemic. I don’t want to lie to anyone [that I’m scared].”
He said that much had been achieved but efforts to battle the disease appeared to have slowed. Individual countries, such as South Africa, which has one of the highest HIV/Aids burdens in the world, could on their own not succeed in fighting the disease.
Sidibé said that “global solidarity” was needed to fight the disease.
Actress Charlize Theron, speaking at the same press conference, said that there would also be no success in fighting the disease unless adolescents were made a part of the struggle against the disease.
“Our young people are dying at a rate that frightens me. We have to acknowledge that we have ignored our adolescents.”
She questioned why there seemed to be so little concern about the disease and its impact on adolescents.
UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, speaking at the same press conference, said that there was a major need for “an era of fast track responses” to the disease as well as others.
He said more resources were required to fight the disease and that more protection was needed for groups of people that were particularly susceptible to the disease.
Olive Shisana, the local–co-chair of the conference, said that the progress achieved since the conference was last held in Durban back in 2000 was to be commended, but that “the progress is precarious”.
There are currently 17.3 million people receiving anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment globally with the largest programme for rolling out the ARV treatment in South Africa. In South Africa Aids-related deaths had fallen by a third since the previous World Aids Conference held in Durban.
“Despite these successes the fight against HIV/Aids and TB (tuberculosis) is not over,” said South African deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa, also speaking at the same press conference. He too pointed to the “stubbornly high” infection rate that had not changed in the past five years.
He conceded that South Africa had been found wanting in providing resources to research and development (R&D) that would lead to either a cure or a vaccine, but that the government was giving the matter much more attention.
“Countries that have been successful are countries that have invested in R&D. We have as a country accepted that we have fallen behind,” he said. “We are going to see change,” he promised.
African News Agency