Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2000. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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United Press International - Tuesday, 11 July 2000
Michael Smith, UPI Science News
The meeting will be in Brussels Sept. 28 and will also target tuberculosis and malaria, said Lieve Fransen of the EC's development directorate.
About 130 high-level officials, including representatives from the EC itself, European nations, developing countries, and the industry and research communities, will debate ways of improving the fight against the three diseases.
"These diseases can be prevented and treated," Fransen said. "The European Commission recognizes that existing efforts are clearly not sufficient."
Fransen said it is too early to say what concrete changes the meeting will make. "There will be action, there should be change," she said.
But she said this will be the first time the European Commission, the governing body of the European Community, has tried to break down the bureaucratic barriers that stand in the way of improving access to treatment, more efficient production of therapeutic products, and increasing the investment in new products.
French health minister Monique Grillot said the meeting is a priority for her government, which has been pushing for improvements in the way the European Community delivers its annual $700 million worth of health aid to developing countries.
France currently holds the rotating presidency of the commission.
"What I think is important is that the European Commission is trying to work together with its different departments and work together with developing countries," said Gro Harlem Brundtland, director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO).
She said the commission is trying to create a "greater combined effort," like the U.S. government, which is able to deliver targeted international AIDS programs on behalf of people living in 50 states.
WHO, along with the United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), is helping to organize the September meeting.
Among them, the three diseases kill 4 million people a year, Brundtland said, "and the death toll is rising."
"Interventions are available, but they are not being used," she said, because of such things as trade barriers, rigid patent rules, and high prices.
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