America.gov (Washington, DC)
Cheryl Pellerin
5 August 2008
HIV/AIDS is the focus of world attention for scientists, policymakers, activists and patients as the 17th International AIDS conference meets in Mexico City August 3-8 and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) releases its 2008 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic.
The world's largest AIDS meeting, held every two years, opened August 3 with addresses by Mexican President Felipe Calderon, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and World Health Organization Director-General Margaret Chan. AIDS 2008 was convened by the International AIDS Society.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon and Mexico's president, Felipe Calderon, meet in advance of the AIDS conference in Mexico City.
Participating in the meeting, whose theme is Universal Action Now, are more than 25,000 scientists, advocates and community and political leaders. The theme emphasizes the need for continued urgency and action on the part of all involved in the worldwide response to HIV/AIDS.
"How we fare in fighting AIDS will impact all our efforts to cut poverty and improve nutrition, reduce child mortality and improve maternal health, curb the spread of malaria and [tuberculosis] and strengthen health systems," Ban said, and congratulated the United States on new legislation that makes $48 billion available for the fight against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria over the next five years. (See "U.S. Law Extends Global Assistance for HIV/AIDS by Five Years.")
"AIDS is the most complex, the most challenging and probably the most devastating infectious disease humanity has ever had to face. And we have faced this disease. We have rallied," Chan said.
"The history of the response has been one of demanding action," she added, "identifying obstacles and unleashing the power to push these obstacles aside. The activists set things sailing. The international community stepped in to build the boat. This is global solidarity."
GLOBAL EPIDEMIC
According to the 2008 UNAIDS report, HIV infections declined from 3 million in 2001 to 2.7 million in 2007. But rates of new HIV infections are rising in China, Indonesia, Kenya, Mozambique, Papua New Guinea, the Russian Federation, Ukraine and Vietnam, and HIV incidence is increasing in Germany, the United Kingdom and Australia.
The global epidemic has leveled off in terms of the percentage of people infected (prevalence) but the number of people living with HIV has increased to 33 million globally with nearly 7,500 new infections each day. Three million people are receiving anti-retroviral treatment in low- and middle-income countries.
Delegates to the AIDS conference march in Mexico City August 2 against homophobia.
The report shows the combined will and efforts of governments, donors, civil society and affected communities can have an effect. Some 105 countries have set goals and targets to achieve universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support by 2010.
In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced August 3 that an estimated 56,300 U.S. HIV infections -- rather than the agency's previous estimate of 40,000 -- occurred in 2006.
The new estimate -- published in a special HIV/AIDS issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association released at the Mexico City meeting -- is the result of the first national surveillance system based on direct measurement of new HIV infections.
The system builds on a new laboratory test, called the BED HIV-1 capture enzyme immunoassay because it originally was developed based on the B, E and D clades (organisms with a common ancestor) of HIV, that can distinguish recent from long-standing HIV infections.
A separate CDC historical trend analysis published as part of the study suggests that the number of new infections has been roughly stable overall since the late 1990s.
NO END IN SIGHT
On the meeting's first day, UNAIDS Executive Director Dr. Peter Piot set the stage, pointing out successes in the battle against HIV/AIDS.
"For the first time, fewer people are dying of AIDS. For the first time, fewer people are becoming infected with HIV. For the first time, we have empirical evidence that our brilliant coalition can move mountains," Piot said. "This is cause for great encouragement but it is not cause for complacency and it is certainly far too early for declaring victory, because the end of AIDS is nowhere in site."
"When historians look back on how the world responded to AIDS, they will describe an unprecedented global mobilization in response to a health problem," said Dr. Jaime Sepulveda, director of integrated health solutions development in the Global Health Program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Sepulveda cited "the creation of an independent U.N. program addressing a single disease, UNAIDS; the creation of a new global funding mechanism, the Global Fund; the creation of the largest bilateral health program in history, PEPFAR [the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief]; massive investment, public and private, in the development of new technologies, especially drugs, to combat HIV; and perhaps most unprecedented, the birth of global alliances of people living with the disease, dedicated to mobilizing a global response."
More information about AIDS 2008 is available at the conference Web site.
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