1st International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Pathogenesis and Treatment Buenos Aires, Argentina - July 8-11, 2001

[ABSTRACT:] Today, approximately 36 million individuals are living with HIV around the world and more than 22 million have died as a consequence of this pandemic. Despite the great progress in antiretroviral (ARV) therapy management in the last few years, with significant reduction in morbidity and mortality related to HIV immunodeficiency, more than 95% of these patients do not have an adequate access to diagnosis or treatment with antiretrovirals and antibiotics to control major AIDS opportunistic diseases. In developed countries, such as US, Canada and some parts of Europe or even in developing countries with an effective AIDS policy and strong social control, like Brazil, the trends of the epidemic has been demonstrating signs of stabilization or even decline in some high risk groups, with deep reduction in occurrence of AIDS deaths, prevalence of opportunistic diseases and hospitalization rates with substantial economic savings, suggesting that the use of ARV therapy as a public health policy is a cost-effective strategy. However, in other places where the access to potent ARV therapy is not as easy to reach or basically does not exist, like Subsaarian Africa and Asia, the AIDS epidemic is becoming a national emergency, with devastating demographic, social, economic and political consequences. This can affect not only the developing world, but also the industrialized countries that can also suffer consequences. The direct and indirect causes for this dramatic scenario are obvious, but the short and long term solutions are apparently difficult to implement, involving a strong and organized effort by the international community associated with political commitment by local governments, more effective and flexible negotiation with pharmaceutics industries. In this context, the participation of civil society in the whole process will be crucial.

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