Miami Herald - July 12, 2004
Fred Tasker, ftasker@herald.com

BANGKOK, Thailand - Too few doctors treating AIDS. Continuing victimization of women by men who infect them. A lack of leadership from top government officials down to individual fathers who ought to raise their sons to respect their wives and girlfriends.

These three failures mean world leaders and individuals are breaking passionate promises made three years ago to fight AIDS, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan told 17,000 researchers, doctors and activists at the opening ceremonies of the 15th International AIDS Conference in this booming Asian capital.

"Over the past few years, we have seen a terrifying pattern emerge," Annan said. "All over the world, women are increasingly bearing the brunt of the epidemic.

"Women now account for nearly half of all adult infections," he said. "Among people younger than 24, girls and young women make up nearly two-thirds of those living with HIV.

"And yet, one third of all countries still have no policies to ensure that women have access to prevention and care," he said. "Knowing what we do today about the path of the epidemic, how can we allow that to be the case?"

Annan was referring to pledges made at a 2001 U.N. General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS, in which member states approved a Declaration of Commitment in several areas.

"There has been progress on many fronts," Annan said. "And yet we are not doing nearly well enough."

Delegates at the Impact Center Arena in a Bangkok suburb cheered the speech.

Outside, hours before he spoke, hundreds of activists peacefully marched past the arena in a protest organized by the Thai Network of People Living With HIV/AIDS and the U.S. groups Health Gap and ACT-UP.

Chanting "Access for all!" and carrying signs that said "You talk, we die" and "Stop the war on HIV protection," they were criticizing affluent nations that have failed to live up to their promises to make donations to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and also U.S. trade policy they say threatens attempts by Thailand and other countries to provide cheaper generic drugs.

Annan urged delegates to try harder on several fronts:

* First, governments must change the ways in which they educate their girls and young women, he said.

"Why are women more vulnerable to infection? Why is that so even where they are not the ones with the most sexual partners outside marriage, not more likely than men to be injecting drug users?"

He blamed "poverty, abuse and violence, lack of information, coercion by older men and men having several concurrent sexual relationships that entrap young women in a giant network of infection."

* Second, Annan said, men must show leadership in the way they raise their sons.

"Leadership comes from fathers, husbands, sons and uncles who support and affirm the rights of women.

'It means freeing boys and men from some of the cultural stereotypes and expectations they may be trapped in -- such as the belief that men who don't show their wives 'who's boss at home' are not real men, or that coming into manhood means having your sexual initiation with a sex worker when you are 13 years old."

* Finally, he said, governments need to follow up the AIDS-fighting money they give poor countries with hands-on efforts to help them train more doctors and build more clinics so the money will get to the people who need it.

"Enlisting untapped talent among community workers, volunteers and people living with HIV/AIDS will both help scale up the efforts and contribute to breaking the stigma and silence."

Annan's message buoyed veteran AIDS fighters.

"I hope his leadership cascades around the world," said Richard Burzinski, director of the International Council of AIDS Networks.

'We need to encourage hundreds of thousands of people to fight AIDS' -- doctors, nurses, community leaders. We don't have enough," Burzinski said.

040712
MH040708

AEGiS presents published material, reprinted with permission and neither endorses nor opposes any material. All information contained on this website, including information relating to health conditions, products, and treatments, is for informational purposes only. It is often presented in summary or aggregate form. It is not meant to be a substitute for the advice provided by your own physician or other medical professionals. Always discuss treatment options with a doctor who specializes in treating HIV.

Copyright ©1980, 2004. AEGiS. All materials appearing on AEGiS are protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under U.S. copyright and other laws and are the property of AEGiS, or the party credited as the provider of the content. .