1st International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Pathogenesis and Treatment Buenos Aires, Argentina - July 8-11, 2001

[KEY NOTE SPEECH:]

About 60 million people have been infected with HIV since the beginning of the epidemic, 22 million of them have already died of AIDS. This spreading epidemic is leading to national catastrophes with breakdown of infrastructures, economies, and national and regional securities.

The recent impressive therapeutic gains have only benefited 10% of those infected. The dramatic inequalities between rich and poor nations in caring for persons living with HIV/AIDS highlight the moral imperative to develop strategies to increase access to life-saving treatments for the majority of infected people.

The scale of the catastrophe has only recently been realized, and failure to mount sufficient response is shared by leaders of rich and poor nations alike. The need for new financial mechanisms to increase thefow of resources to combat HIV/AIDS and other communicable diseases - through the creation of an International Fund - has been recently addressed during the recent UN General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS.

The International Fund should also be used to provide antiretroviral drugs to the South of the world. However, it is a serious mistake to think that provision of the drugs alone will be enough to solve the crisis. Even with radical price reductions, millions of poor people will still lack access to HIV treatment if adequate health services infrastructure is not available. Provision of antiretrovirals need to be accompanied by resources for counselling and testing, drug distribution, education and training of health care providers, development of treatment protocols, and monitoring. In summary, it would require strengthening of the local health care infrastructure, which subsequently could have a major positive impact on other diseases affecting these countries. Science should play an important role, by re-orienting research efforts towards the South. Particularly, through the development of new safe, effective and cheap drugs, microbicides and vaccines, and through the exploration of new treatment strategies such as immune interventions, pulsed or intermittent treatments, and easier monitoring systems.

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