What this AIDS conference is all about

Over the last few days, several people have asked me what the XVI International AIDS Conference is all about. So I’d like to provide a brief description of what I understand this conference will be:

• 25500 delegates from approximately 140 countries, meeting here in Toronto;
• Discussions, demonstrations, speeches, workshops, displays, and cultural activities;
• For health care workers, scientific researchers, advocates, activists, policy makers, social workers, and people living with HIV/AIDS;
• A place for people working in different countries and fields of work to meet, network, and share information (delegates from previous conferences have indicated that this is one of the most important things they got from their experiences);
• An opportunity to check on the status of the disease across the world and to focus on what is left to be done. It is not an accident that the theme of this year’s conference is “Time to Deliver”;
• An opportunity for the media to focus on this issue and to remind the world that there is so much left to be done;
• We are told that there *will* be activist demonstrations, although not all are known at this time.

It is possible that you may wonder why we’re still talking about HIV/AIDS. After all, there are now treatments such as ARV (anti-retrovirals), right?

• The vast majority of people living with HIV/AIDS in the developing world do not have access to treatment, as a result of limited health care infrastructures and the high cost of many medications.
• It has been estimated that a total of US$7-10 billion a year is needed from all sources to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic in low and middle-income countries.
• Every minute, a child somewhere in the world dies of AIDS
• There were an estimated 40.3 million people in the world believed living with HIV/AIDS at the end of 2005 (http://globalhealth.org/images/issues/aids_map_lge.jpg)
• 4.9 million people became newly infected with HIV in 2005, including 700,000 children
• In 2005 alone, a total of 3.1 million people died of HIV/AIDS-related causes
• World-wide, only one in ten persons infected with HIV has been tested and knows his/her HIV status
• An estimated 5 to 6 million people in low- and middle-income countries will die in the next two years if they do not receive antiretroviral treatment (ART). At the end of 2005, only one in seven Asians and one in ten Africans who need ART were receiving it.
• In some African countries, three quarters of those infected are women - many of whom have not had more than one sexual partner
• More than 13 million children under the age of 15 have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS, and this number is projected to double by 2010
• … and on and on and on …

(Sources: Websites for The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria and The Global Health Council)

There’s lots of room for hope, but only if there is the political will. Bill and Melinda Gates have given very generously to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. Canada has passed a law to produce generic drugs that can be distributed in developing countries – now it has to actually make this happen. Various G8 countries have promised aid to the most affected countries, but again these promises are yet to be kept.

Now, more than ever, it’s time to deliver.