WASHINGTON, Dec 1 (AFP) - Former US president Bill Clinton strongly criticized the world's governments for failing to provide widespread testing and effective medical care for those infected with the AIDS virus, in an opinion piece Sunday in the New York Times.
"Withholding of treatment will appear to future historians as medieval, like bloodletting," he wrote in the article which appeared on the 15th annual observance of World AIDS Day.
"Too many countries are still in denial about the scope of the problem and what has to be done about it; many countries lack the nationwide health infrastructure to treat such a disease," he added.
The former president called for "a full-throttle treatment program in conjunction with ongoing education and prevention efforts," to help eradicate the global health scourge.
"There are close to six million people in the developing world with AIDS who should be getting treatment but are not. That does not account for the 36 million people around the world whose infections will need treatment in the next few years," he wrote.
Clinton also called for wider testing to help preempt the spread of the HIV virus which causes the deadly disease.
"As more people are inspired to be tested, more will receive potentially life-saving education about AIDS transmission," he wrote.
"We can and must do more to stop the spread of AIDS by doing more to treat people who already have it," the former president concluded.
"Now that we have the medical capacity to save and improve the lives of millions of people, there is no other moral or practical choice."
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