An important step in the fight against Aids in the developing world is for poor nations to immediately make a deal with drug companies or other countries to provide affordable HIV drugs, former US President Bill Clinton said on Thursday.
Clinton joined a panel of former heads of state in a special session at the 14th International AIDS Conference in Barcelona to discuss the role of political leadership in the global fight against Aids.
He told conference participants that they were the real heroes in the fight against Aids.
”Most of what people like me have done, you’ve kind of dragged out of us over the course of 20 years by educating us and continuing to chip away,” Clinton said.
He told them not to be discouraged.
”Obviously these numbers are overwhelming, and there have been no medical breakthroughs and I know a lot of you are worn down, and if you’re HIV positive you may be frightened,” he said. ”But there is a greater level of understanding and support among the political leadership of the world across the lines that otherwise divide
people.”
The Aids epidemic is the worst scourge to hit the world since the Black Death in the 14th century. However, it is preventable.
Medicines have turned it from a death sentence into a manageable chronic illness, and drugs can prevent infected mothers from passing the virus to their children through breast milk.
There are several counties where medicine and prevention strategies have turned the tide, Clinton noted in his plain-speaking talk.
The United Nations has estimated that the world will need to spend $10-billion a year for several years to get the pandemic under control.
”First of all, the rich countries should figure out what they owe and they should pay – and pay in a timely fashion,” Clinton said. ”The advocates and the people representing the people in the poor countries with high infection rates need to figure out how to get the money and what to do with it.”
Caribbean nations announced on Wednesday that they had cut a deal with drug companies for the supply of affordable drugs. Specific prices were not disclosed.
Few other countries have taken similar action. ”Everybody else needs to make the same deal. You either need to make a deal you can live with the drug companies, or Brazil has announced they are going to provide generics, and India has announced they are,” Clinton said. ”This needs to be done and done now. And quickly.”
Once the deals are made, developing countries need to work out how much they can pay and then go after the rest from the rich nations, he said.
”My advice is push every country you can to make their deals with the drug companies. If the deals are unsatisfactory, go to Brazil or India -the UN is certifying those drugs,” Clinton said.
”Then come to the rest of us and say ‘OK, this is what we need: Here’s what we need for medicine and here’s what we need for prevention.”’
Using that strategy will make it much easier for politicians in rich nations to say yes, he said. – Sapa-AP