Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Reuters NewMedia - Sunday, November 30, 2003
Blair said the disease had already infected 60 million people, killed 20 million and would spread poverty and instability around the world if left unchecked.
"The scale and devastation of the disease is colossal," Blair wrote in the mass-circulation Sun newspaper. "It is a human tragedy on a massive scale.
"It needs the whole world community to act together. And it is not just a moral duty -- it is also in our national interests.
"Unless we act now and decisively, the deepening poverty and instability will reach far beyond the parts of the world worst affected."
Blair's comments coincided with World AIDS Day, marked with a series of marches, exhibitions and vigils to highlight the growing dangers of the disease.
The United Nations also unveiled plans to rush life-saving anti-retroviral AIDS drugs to three million of the world's poor in a $5.5 billion emergency strategy to fight the disease.
Former South African President Nelson Mandela was joined by pop stars Bono, Beyonce Knowles and Bob Geldof at a Cape Town concert on Saturday to call for more help to fight AIDS.
U.S. ambassador to Britain William Farish said at least 75 million people would be infected with HIV/AIDS by 2010 unless action was taken.
"We know how to treat many of the symptoms," Farish told the Sun. "Stemming the tide requires a global effort."
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said this weekend that AIDS was a "weapon of mass destruction" for some countries and the world was losing the fight against the epidemic.
A U.N. report last week said intravenous drug use and unsafe sex fueled the spread of the disease.
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