BANGKOK, Thailand – The World Health Organization said Tuesday the world has “failed miserably” in getting lifesaving drugs to millions afflicted with HIV, and France accused the United States of bullying poor countries into ceding rights to make affordable generic medicine.
At the International AIDS Conference, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged Washington to show the same leadership in fighting AIDS as it has in fighting terrorism.
“We hear a lot about weapons of mass destruction, we hear a lot about terrorism. And we are worried about weapons of mass destruction because of the potential to kill thousands. Here we have an epidemic that is killing millions. What is the response?” Annan said in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp. in Bangkok.
“We really do need a leadership. America has a natural leadership capacity because of its resources, because of its size,” Annan said.
Since the last AIDS conference in Barcelona in 2002, the number of people being treated for the disease has doubled in the developing world to 440,000. At the same time, 6 million people died from the virus and 10 million people became infected, WHO figures show.
Cost is a key issue. European and U.S. pharmaceutical giants make most of the drugs, which are protected by patents and cost as much as $5,000 per person a year.
Developing countries such as Thailand, Brazil and India are making cheap generic drugs – WHO put its seal of approval on four new generic Indian products Tuesday – but they not enough to reach everybody.
The Bush administration’s five-year, $15 billion plan for worldwide HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment is modeled after a program in Uganda, which stresses abstinence, monogamy and condom use.
It recommends that 55 percent of direct aid go to treatment programs, 20 percent to prevention, 15 percent to alleviate symptoms and 10 percent to children orphaned by the disease.
The Bush plan includes $5 billion over five years to bilateral programs in more than 100 countries and increases the U.S. pledge to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria by $1 billion over five years.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher rejected Annan’s criticism of the U.S. AIDS effort, saying the money proposed by President Bush to combat AIDS is an “enormous amount” and a significant increase over what’s been spent before.
France’s global ambassador on AIDS, Mireille Guigaz, said, “The United States wants to put pressure on developing countries who try to stand up for their own industries. This is a problem.”
A U.S. official who declined to be named called the French allegations “nonsense,” and insisted the trade agreements will conform to WTO rules allowing poor countries to make generic drugs. “There really is no issue,” he said.
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