With the US and Britain on a high state of terror alert Bill Clinton, US president 1993 - 2001, used his opening address to the Tenth Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic infections to tell delegates that HIV must be controlled before many of the issues currently causing instability around the world could be effectively tackled.
Calling AIDS a “threat” to democracy, the former US president stressed the importance of providing treatment to the millions of people with HIV in resource limited countries. Failure to offer treatment for HIV was resulting in the devastation of political, economic and social structures. He singled out former South African President Nelson Mandela for praise for his efforts to highlight the impact of HIV on South Africa and other resource limited countries.
Although praising his successor, President Bush, for his commitment to provide $15 billion to HIV programmes in Africa, President Clinton said that it was important to ensure that countries receiving the investment were prepared to use the cash appropriately. Hinting at the possibility of US political resistance to the provision of the money, he said that pressure must be put on members of the US Congress to approve the funding and that the US government must make efforts to ensure that the money is used appropriately by countries receiving it, and in particular that systems are in place so that the cash is used for the people most in need of it.
President Clinton highlighted the activities of his own foundation in the training of nurses to work in HIV care in Africa and the Caribbean, and to set up clinics, distribute medication and provide prevention information. However, he warned that HIV could cause social and political instability and threaten democracies.
Treatment programmes were as important as primary prevention efforts in slowing the spread of HIV, said Clinton, urging delegates to the conference to use what ever influence they had to press upon those in positions of power the importance of HIV treatment and care controlling and preventing the further spread of HIV.
His own record in office was reviewed and he commented favourably on aspects of his administration’s HIV policy, but admitted he had been wrong to oppose needle exchange programmes, which remain a sensitive issue in US politics. Clinton stressed the need to “put science before politics”, a comment which could also be interpreted as an attack on the Bush administration’s policy of supporting abstinence only HIV prevention efforts.