Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1999. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Reuters NewMedia - Wednesday December 1, 1999

In London and South Africa public buildings were dramatically bathed in red light as World AIDS Day dawned, while in Washington hundreds of protesters charged the United States on the eve of the event with hindering the access of developing countries to AIDS drugs.

In France, the French medical charity Medecins du Monde urged countries meeting at the World Trade Organization (WTO) summit to allow Third World states to import and produce anti-AIDS drugs cheaply without fearing trade sanctions from rich Western countries.

According to UNAIDS, the UN agency charged with combating the deadly HIV virus, 2.6 million people -- more than ever before -- died from AIDS this year. Experts warn that the death toll is set to rise in the new millennium.

A total of 16 million people have died since the AIDS epidemic began in 1981.

UNAIDS says 5.6 million people have become infected with HIV this year, bringing the global total to 33.6 million.

An obscure Buddhist monk who runs a hillside hospice for the dying in Thailand summed up in a graphic phrase the grim prospect facing the world from the ravages of AIDS at the start of the third millennium.

``In the next four to five years I don't think we'll be able to cope....We'll have people dying like falling leaves,'' he said.

Phra Alongkot Tikapanyoa was speaking in a recent interview only of the developing AIDS crisis in Thailand, but his warning applied equally to the rest of the world. According to UNAIDS the global epidemic is worsening.

``The crisis is actually growing,'' Dr Peter Piot, the agency's executive director, said last month.

St Paul's Cathedral, one of London's most famous landmarks, and the South African parliament in Cape Town were bathed in red light in a spectacular start to the ceremonies. A drum beat every six seconds at St Paul's to mark the time it takes for a new infection to occur somewhere in the world.

AIDS experts warned about the dangers of complacency and the increasing number of new infections.

The latest figures from UNAIDS show that 95 percent of HIV sufferers live in poor countries, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa. Infection rates are expected to climb higher because of poor health systems, poverty and limited resources.

Some 5,500 people die of AIDS every day in sub-Saharan Africa which is home to almost 70 percent of HIV/AIDS sufferers.

In Paris, Medecins du Monde demanded that the WTO meeting in Seattle allow easier access of anti-AIDS drugs to the poor.

``At the start of this new WTO negotiating round, we demand that existing TRIPS rules allowing developing countries to produce and import medicines be applied without the threat of trade retaliation,'' it said.

The global TRIPS (Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) accord lets companies other than the patent holder produce drugs or import them from countries other than the original producer during health emergencies or because of unfair pricing.

But poor nations shy away from doing this under the threat of trade sanctions by the United States and Western European countries, medical charities charge.

Drugs such as AZT, which slow the spread of the HIV virus in the body, are often too costly for developing countries to import. South Africa said this month it would cost 10 times its annual health budge to import enough AZT to deal with its rampant AIDS problem.

In Washington, 10 demonstrators from the AIDS group ACT-UP were arrested outside the White House Tuesday in a protest accusing the Clinton administration of working to preserve the profits of drug companies by keeping cheaper, generic medicines out of poor countries.
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