“Mass murder by complacency” sums up the behaviour of rich countries towards AIDS in Africa, according to Stephen Lewis, UN special envoy for HIV in Africa.
Lewis, speaking at a press briefing on 8 January 2003, was highlighting the slow financial response of industrialised nations to the Global Fund for HIV, TB and Malaria. The Fund, which was launched in 2001 has so far only received pledges for $2.1 billion of the $10 billion it says is needed to provide HIV prevention and treatment programmes in resource limited countries.
The failure of richer countries to make donations was contrasted by Lewis with the growing sense of urgency and action being taken by African countries.
What’s more, Lewis is predicting that the threatened renewal of conflict in the Middle East, will further hit the willingness of industrialised countries to give to international development causes, including HIV.
Meanwhile, World Trade Organisation talks on access to generic medication are due to restart shortly. Negotiations late last year failed to reach agreement on which conditions poorer countries should be allowed to break patents to obtain treatments for. Although there was agreement that patents on HIV, TB and malaria drugs could be broken, there was no agreement which other conditions should receive similar exemption.
Another sticking point proved to be the exporting of generics from middle-income countries such as Brazil which have pharmaceutical manufacturing capability, to more resource limited countries, including most countries hit hard by HIV in Africa, which do not.
However, the US has made it clear that it will not be prepared to accept a deal which allowed the breaking of patents for anything other than serious infectious diseases such as HIV, TB and malaria. The US accused countries making generics of trying to engineer an agreement which would allow them to ignore patents on financially lucrative medicines such as the anti-impotence drug, Viagra.
If a settlement is not reached, senior World Trade Organisation officials are warning that any agreements reached in the current round of talks, including the Doha deal in late 2001, which seemed to allow access to generics in the event of “health emergencies”, would be nullified.