U.S. pledges more aid for HIV/AIDS fight

The 19th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2012) opened on Sunday evening at the Walter E Washington Convention Centre in the United States, with Washington pledging to continue its support for poor countries in the fight against the pandemic.

The conference is being attended by some 25,000 delegates from more than 195 countries. It is focused primarily on bringing the greatest minds in the field of science and social sciences together, in order to come up with a strategy to eradicate the deadly virus and break the culture of stymieing development of people living with the HIV/AIDS virus.
Delegates for the conference will dedicate the week to presenting the latest scientific research and building momentum towards ensuring that financing and global leadership across all sectors keep pace with scientific progress against HIV. “Our return to the United States after a 22-year absence comes at a time of extraordinary hope, a time when we believe that the end of the AIDS epidemic is possible,” said Elly Katabira, international chair of AIDS 2012 and president of the International AIDS Society (IAS).
Meanwhile, U.S. co-chair of AIDS 2012 and Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco Dr Diane Havlir said, “AIDS 2012 is an important opportunity to thank the American people and highlight the millions of lives saved as a result of generous U.S. contributions to the global fight against AIDS and its leadership in HIV research. There is no doubt, that our progress over the past 30 years has been impressive, but maintaining the status quo is simply not enough.”
Dr. Havlir urged policy makers around the world to invest in science and the epidemic with the aim of saving lives. Dr. Katabira and Havlir called on delegates and allies around the world to sign The Washington DC Declaration, the official declaration of AIDS 2012.
The declaration calls for renewed urgency and seeks to build broad support for beginning to end the AIDS epidemic through a nine-point action plan.
“Today, someone diagnosed with HIV and treated before the disease is far advanced can have a nearly normal life expectancy. Now is not the time for easing up, slowing down, or shifting our focus. If we are going to reach our ultimate goal of an AIDS-free generation, we must all challenge ourselves to do more to reach even more people, to make programmes even more effective and accountable, to push the boundaries of science even further.”
“Sustained progress in the AIDS response is accelerating our journey to zero,” said Michel Sidibé. Sidibé is the executive director of UNAIDS. “It is now time for a new AIDS agenda and new partnerships based on shared responsibility, mutual accountability and global solidarity,” he stated.
Guyana has over the years received enormous support from the U.S. government to fight the HIV/AIDS epidemic through various institutions, including USAID and PEPFAR, among others. PEPFAR has been supporting Guyana in its work to further integrate and expand access to other health care services, such as those that address tuberculosis, malaria, maternal and child health, and family planning with HIV/ AIDS programmes.
PEPFAR has also supported the expansion of the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission programme. This programme continues to provide testing to thousands of pregnant women and anti-retroviral therapy to HIV positive pregnant women in Guyana, to prevent transmission of HIV to their babies.

AIDS-free generation
The U.S. government has also recommitted to continuing the battle against this global epidemic. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during a keynote ad dress on Monday reaffirmed that commitment when she said that the U. S. will keep pushing for an aids-free generation, while making an announcement to fund more HIV drugs.
Clinton also said that the Obama administration will create interventions such as circumcisions to help turn back the global epidemic. “I am here to make it absolutely clear: The United States is committed and will remain committed to achieving an AIDS-free generation,” Clinton told conference delegates. “We will not back off, we will not back down, we will fight for the resources to achieve this historic milestone,” she stated.
The U.S. secretary of state announced more than US$ 150 million in new U. S. spending initiatives geared toward leveraging progress against AIDS already achieved, through new drug treatments, programmes to stop mother-to-child transmission of HIV and the preventive effect of expanded voluntary male circumcision.
Clinton said, “HIV may be with us into the future until we finally achieve a cure, a vaccine. But the disease that HIV causes need not be with us.” The International AIDS Conference was last held in the U. S. in 1990 in San Francisco.
U.S. restrictions on the entry of people living with HIV prohibited the conference’s return in the ensuing 20 years. Following years of advocacy and under a process initiated by President George W Bush and finished by President Barack Obama, the U. S. restrictions were lifted in 2010, paving the way for the conference’s return. The conference is being held under the theme: “Turning the Tide”.
The United Nations estimates that about 34 million people are living with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS. However, UN figures show that the number of worldwide AIDS-related deaths fell to 1.7 million last year from some 1.8 million in 2010, after peaking at 2.3 million in 2005. An estimated eight million people in lower-income countries are receiving antiretroviral drugs, and the United Nations has set a target to raise that to 15 million by 2015.
Funding for HIV prevention and treatment totalled US$ 16.8 billion last year. Of that amount, US$ 8.2 billion came from international sources, including the United States, which donated 48 per cent of it.