Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-09-05-Speech-2-111"
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"en.20000905.9.2-111"2
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". – The Commission attended the 13th International Aids Conference, which took place in Durban, South Africa, from 7 to14 July 2000. The theme of the conference, 'Breaking the Silence', provided a framework which helped to strengthen national and international action against HIV/Aids.
The conference welcomed scientific progress in addressing Aids, especially news of the first efficacy trials for an Aids vaccine and the evidence that transmission of HIV from mother to infant could be largely prevented by cost-effective use of anti-retroviral drugs. Also welcome was information on the many small-scale condom and safe sex empowerment education programmes that have proved their worth in stemming the spread of HIV/Aids.
I believe that the conference could have given more attention to the lessons of success stories as regards improving and expanding these prevention strategies because information and prevention is in fact the most important ways of fighting Aids. Prevention is central to a successful long-term national, international and global response to Aids. At the same time a full spectrum of care from basic treatment of opportunistic infections to entry retroviral therapy for HIV infection can no longer be denied to the vast majority of the millions of people infected with the virus.
The Commission welcomes the new initiatives being taken against HIV/Aids by some countries to produce cheaper generic drugs and would like to offer its support to help such countries provide technical assistance to other developing countries to enable them to pursue such initiatives. Possibilities will be further discussed with the countries involved. We recognise that the production of generic drugs could greatly improve access to care and treatment for HIV/Aids.
The statistics of the epidemic are frightening and still getting worse. For example, one in four Zimbabweans will die from HIV/Aids, including one in three in the capital, Harare. More than a million children are already orphaned by HIV/Aids in Zimbabwe, almost 10% of the population. More than half the pregnant women in some areas in Botswana are infected with HIV, and a third of them transmit HIV to their new-born babies during delivery.
The conference opened up exciting new opportunities and partnerships that will enable people who are vulnerable to HIV infection to gain access to technologies and procedures to make care more affordable for HIV/Aids sufferers and invest in new technologies and products to prevent and treat HIV/Aids.
These opportunities must be exploited immediately, and the Commission intends to play its part. It is accordingly discussing innovative approaches with its developing country partners as well as with other donors. We can and must be doing all that we should do about HIV/Aids. We can and must also do everything possible to combat other major killer diseases affecting poor people. Malaria and tuberculosis, both of which kill more than a million people a year, must assume new importance in our work to reduce poverty and ill-health.
Accelerated action on the three key communicable diseases - HIV/Aids, malaria and tuberculosis - has been addressed this year by a number of high-level meetings. The Commission will shortly submit a communication to the Council and Parliament outlining proposals for accelerated action to improve access to proven key measures and commodities to develop active and effective delivery structures and systems for drugs and increase investment in research into and development of priority drugs and vaccines. The communication points especially to the value of bringing condoms, bed nets and other preventive procedures to the poorest and most vulnerable more rapidly and on a sufficiently large scale.
The European Union accounted for 55% of global development aid in the social sectors in 1997 and has increased its support for health, Aids and population programmes from 1% of our total assistance in 1986 to over 8% at the present time, compared to an OECD average of 5.5%. We are therefore focusing more and more on this field. Total commitments of EUR 3.4 billion were earmarked for health, Aids and population between 1990 and 1998, none of which was offered as loans. This is in clear contrast to the recent offer from the United States to southern Africa. The Commission is holding wide-ranging consultations on options for accelerated national and international action and innovative approaches to address these diseases. On 28 September, in collaboration with the WHO and UN Aids, it will be hosting an international round table. The meeting will consider how a comprehensive approach at national and international level might tackle these three diseases and how we can make a difference."@en1
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