AIDS at 20

Abstract

Abstract Beyond being a medical and public health problem, AIDS has political, human rights and economic implications. Considering AIDS a human rights issue and a moral imperative is inclusive because so many other factors related to AIDS have human rights implications. AIDS has reduced the life expectancy and has wiped out economic progress in many developing countries. Women and children are particularly exploited groups, and discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people also plays a major role in the spread of the disease. Like sexual orientation, adolescent sexuality receives almost no attention at all. Nations are implored to put cultural mores aside in order to save lifes. Unfortunately, at the UN meeting in June 2001 under pressure from Islamic nations, Western nations were forced to back away from specifically naming the most vulnerable populations, including homosexuals and prostitutes (Linzer, 2001). Governments must take leadership to recognize and protect the human rights of their citizens. AIDS in Africa has been compared to the slave trade when whole generations of young people in their most productive years were lost to the continent. Activists believe that we are engaged in a global war against apartheid in health care (Specter, 2001). At the UN meeting in June 2001, some of the goals addressed included prevention, particularly in relation to gender inequities, reduction in mothertoinfant transmission, an increase in the availability of drugs to treat HIV, training health care workers and building laboratories and clinics, elimination of discrimination toward people living with AIDS, a commitment of funds from $7 billion to $10 billion, and debt cancellation in exchange for savings to finance povertyeradication programs, particularly for HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, care and support (Linzer, 2001). The UN Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS set deadlines and indicated that “prevention must be the mainstay of our response.” It was agreed that a multibillion dollar war on AIDS is global priority No. 1. In July 2001, world leaders in Genoa, Italy, announced that about $1.2 billion had been committed to the United Nations “Global Health Fund” that would primarily fight AIDS. However, Secretary General Kofi Annan has said that $7 billion to $10 billion a year is needed to truly make a difference (Sanger, 2001). Programs for debt reduction continue to be discussed, but more concrete action is needed. From an economic point of view, AIDS has been devastating in the short run. However, worldwide support around the AIDS epidemic could create new and lasting partnerships between wealthier and developing nations. Clearly, there is skepticism that rhetoric may not turn into action. But the UN meeting was an important start and a sustained, aggressive global campaign can, hopefully, make a major difference (Nessman, 2001). The global war on poverty is an ongoing struggle to end inequality in the world where more than half the population gets by on $2 a day or less. Even as world leaders defend free trade, a more just globalization process must continue to be in the forefront of debate. At age 20, it is fair to say that HIV/AIDS is not totally under control in any part of the world. Even in the U.S., where AIDS prevention and treatment is probably most advanced and AIDS deaths have declined, individuals continue to develop immunities to available antiretroviral medications, there has been an upsurge of HIV infection among gay men of color, and young people and women continue to be at high risk of infection. In Russia, drug use and sharing needles has reached epidemic proportions among young people. And in Canada, for example, a report released in November 2000 by the Laboratory Centre of Disease Control revealed an alarming reversal of previous infection trends involving gay men. Activists believe that the federal government's Canadian Strategy on HIV/AIDS is grossly underfunded. While the argument whether to provide prevention or treatment of HIV/AIDS continues to be a contentious issue worldwide, with no vaccine or cure in sight, millions of people continue to become infected and die from the disease. The editors of this journal welcome and encourage articles on these and other HIV prevention issues, particularly from local community, clergy and political leaders, which deal with gender strategies for HIV prevention and children's issues.