RSS FeedShould the Commonwealth focus more of its attention on the global HIV/AIDS pandemic?
Posted by AlexT - 25/11/09 at 05:11 pm
To mark the 22nd annual World AIDS Day, Kamalesh Sharma, the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, has co-authored an article in Britain’s Daily Telegraph, along with Michel Sidibe of UNAIDS and Peter Piot of Imperial College, London.
They say the Commonwealth is home to two-thirds of those people living with HIV. Advances in science and medicine, changes in funding and the courageous lobbying of sufferers means much progress has been made. We now have anti-retroviral treatments that significantly prolong the lives of HIV/AIDS patients.
But despite this great work there still exists a significant funding shortfall, with treatment unavailable for over five million people who need it.
In the article, the authors say all citizens of the Commonwealth must come together to devise the best approaches to ensure universal access to treatment. We must question whether we fully understand this epidemic, whether we are actively engaging affected communities and if we are using funds as efficiently as possible.
Is the fight against HIV/AIDS something the Commonwealth should be focusing its efforts on? Is this something the association can afford to ignore?
